《 The Biblical Illustrator – Hebrews (Ch.12~13) 》 (A Compilation)

12 Chapter 12

Verse 1

Verses 1-17

Verse 1-2Hebrews 12:1-2

Compassed about with so great a cloudGreat men:

The witnesses that God has set before the eyes of men are twofold, the witness of greatness and the witness of goodness, the witness of the hero and the witness of the saint.To name these two together is at once to put the one far above the other. Without any argument we feel at once that the hero and the saint belong to different spheres, the hero to nature, the saint to religion; the hero to the earth, the saint to heaven if we examine what sort of a man we call great, we shall always find that it is one who leads his fellow-men. We do not call a man great simply for cleverness, nor for worldly success, the fruit of cleverness. Nor, again, do we call a man great for exceeding goodness, if he have nothing in him which makes that goodness a guide, and not merely a reverenced wonder to his fellows. A great man is he who stands out from others, not for some accidental difference, but for something which makes others follow his lead, acknowledge his power, accept his teachings, admire his course. Such a man will be sure to be marked with these characteristics; he will have a large mind, a strong conviction, and a firm will.

1. He must have a large mind to take in, and feel in full force the truths or the impulses which are dimly and dumbly moving in the minds of his fellow-men. This is the necessary condition of his being able to take the lead. In

the great man all that is narrow and confined to himself is overpowered by what is large, what is shared and felt by thousands beside. He has room in his heart for many interests, for many impulses, for many aims; and he has that within him that shall comprehend and reconcile them all into one great purpose.

2. To this large soul he must add deep convictions. For he will be sure to meet with such obstacles as none but leaders ever meet. He will be aiming at that which is to last for centuries; but he will find straight in his path the passing passions of the day, roused to fiercer enmity by their own shallowness. Even when he is following the deep current, which none but himself is deep enough to feel, he will be stemming all the shallower currents which bear on their surface those that are living in his day. Hence it often happens that as long as he lives he sees no signs of success. He works his work; he sows his seed; but he never sees the harvest. What shall carry a man through all this? Nothing but faith. Be the great man a good man or a bad; be he like Elijah, a prophet and a faithful servant; or be he like Balaam, a prophet and a traitor, nothing can carry him through what he must often encounter but a deep conviction of the truth by which he lives; that truth, whatever it may be, of which he is the messenger.

3. The great man will need, besides a large heart and a deep conviction, a strong will. This is so indispensable a condition of greatness that we frequently fancy that strength of will is almost the whole of greatness, and are prone to admire that beyond all else that we see in a great man. And, indeed, if not the highest element in a great man’s nature, it is yet the one which saves the others from downright degradation. What spectacle is more contemptible than clear knowledge combined with weakness? What character is more universally despised than that of a coward? So absolutely necessary is courage to all true service that we have been made by God with a natural admiration even of wicked courage, in order, no doubt, that we should learn early to put on a piece of armour which we cannot do without, and that even nature should assist us in the first element of our spiritual lesson. What is the crown that must be added to all these qualities to make the great man true to his own greatness? It is loyalty to his true Master. (Bp. Temple.)

The cloud of witnessesI. THE WITNESSES. And what are the truths they bear witness to?

1. They bear witness to the fact that their confidence in God was not misplaced. A man may fail, but God never.

2. They bear witness to the sufficiency of Divine grace. They had no more natural goodness than we; but they overcame it all, and it was in the strength of the Lord they did so.

3. They bear witness to the faithfulness of God to His promises. II. THE APOSTLE’S ADVICE.

1. We are to “lay aside every weight.” I need scarce name particular things. In some it is vanity, in others worldliness, in others unlawful pleasure, in others a violent temper, others unholy attachments. It is, in fact, whatever deadens thy soul, and holds thee back when thou shouldest be pressing forward to the skies.

2. We are to renounce “the sin that doth so easily beset us.” To “beset,” means “to surround,” and the sin that so easily besets us is that to which we are most liable. Very often, indeed mostly, it is that sin to which we were most given before our conversion: as when a breach is made in a wall, it is easier to effect another breach in that place, although it may be built up again, than where stone has never been dislodged. With different constitutions, and with different ages, there are different easily besetting sins. With youth it is often passion--evil desire. With age it is often fretfulness--peevishness. With the rich it is often pride and grasping of power; with the poor it is often repinings against providence. With the healthy it is often forgetfulness of God, and of their latter end; with the sick it is often rebellion against Him who lays on the rod.

3. We are also to “ run with patience the race set before us.” If a thing take us a long time in doing, we are inclined to be impatient about it. Or, if the word may be more properly translated,” perseverance.” Then, if a journey is long, we are generally inclined to grow weary and loiter by the way. But if the road is long and dusty, we are to be patient. If the trial is severe, we are to be patient, and not allow our souls to be agitated. Sometimes the blessing we expect may be delayed, but we are to be patient in waiting for it. Sometimes our persecutions may be fierce indeed, but we are to be patient whilst we endure them. This grace is like the rivet that binds all the machinery together.

III. WE HAVE A GLORIOUS EXAMPLE SET BEFORE US. “Looking unto Jesus.” Christ endured the Cross, and He endured it patiently. (W. G.Pascoe.)

Good men in both worldsI. THE GOOD THAT HAVE DEPARTED TO THE CELESTIAL WORLD.

1. They live. 2. They live in vast number’s. “Cloud.” 3. They live as spectators of their surviving brethren on earth. “Witnesses.”

Though with the politics, commerce, and crafts of the world they have nothing to do, they are intensely alive to its spiritual interests and activities.

II. THE GOOD THAT ARE STILL LIVING ON THE EARTH. 1. Their life is like a racecourse. They both have their limitation, rules, intense

activity, speedy termination. 2. Their life, to realise its end, requires great attention. 3. Their life should be salutarily influenced by the good who have departed.

“Wherefore, seeing,” etc. III. THE GLORIOUS REDEEMER OF THE GOOD IN BOTH WORLDS.

“Looking unto Jesus,” dec. Christ is the chief example of human goodness. 1. He was pre-eminent as an example in the spirit that inspired Him. Self-

oblivion. 2. Preeminent in the grandeur of soul with which He met unparalleled

sufferings. 3. Pre-eminent in the exaltation which He ultimately met. (Homilist.)

ImmortalityI. To any thoughtful and aspiring person, sensitive to fine influences, desirous

of mental and moral advancement, eager for opportunities for culture or for usefulness, THERE IS ALWAYS A SENSE OF EXHILARATION IN FEELING HIMSELF CONNECTED WITH A VARIOUS, SPLENDID, WIDELY-EXTENDED, SOCIAL SYSTEM. It impels naturally to larger effort, gives expansiveness to the whole plan of life, furnishes incentives to nobler personal aspiration and hope. It dignifies, instead of dwarfing, the individual personality. It widens the whole horizon of thought and expectation, and makes one more sensible of both the responsibility and the privilege of life.

II. It is the privilege of the Christian to feel and know that he is associated NOT ONLY WITH SUCH SOCIETIES ON EARTH, BUT WITH VAST AND GLORIOUS AND PURE REALMS OF LIFE WHICH EYE HATH NOT YET SEEN, and of which there comes no whisper to us through the silent blue, yet with which our relations are already intimate, into which we are to pass at death, and in which

we are to dwell thenceforth immortally. It cannot be said that there is a prophecy of this in human nature; but there is an instinct in human nature which prepares us for the reception of it when announced to us in the gospel. We can conceive of ourselves in any relation to others, imaginable--in any place on earth, in any position- but we cannot conceive of ourselves as non-existent.

III. THE MORE CLEARLY WE APPREHEND THESE HIGHER REALMS OF LIFE, THE MORE DEEPLY WE FEEL OUR PERSONAL AND VITAL RELATIONS TO THEM, THE MORE WILL THEY, BY THE INFLUENCE WHICH FALLS FROM THEM, ENRICH AND EXALT OUR DAILY LIFE.

1. For one thing they lessen the attraction of the world upon our minds and hearts. In our times this world seems to draw the spirit to itself, almost as the power of gravitation holds the body to the planet. Some months ago we had an ice storm. The gently descending rain froze as it fell, until it covered every tree and shrub with a raiment of brilliancy, as if it had been plaited in diamond and hung with diamond drops. It was superb to look upon, almost an apocalypse of natural beauty. Yet the very splendour broke the tree. The brilliant garniture overwhelmed that which was tender and vital in the shrub which it adorned. So it is with the great and splendid accumulations of wealth and the ornaments of pleasure that are so feverishly and anxiously sought. They destroy in us, often, by their very attainment, that which is finest and grandest in our spiritual nature. How shall we resist this encompassing influence? We cannot resist it by force of will; we might as well try to jump from the planet. We cannot extricate ourselves from the constant social influences which are around us, leading us to these results. We must somehow or other rise above it all. As long as we contemplate that into which we are to enter by and by, we are comparatively careless of that which is beneath. It ceases to make that masterful impression on our spirits which otherwise it had made, and which otherwise it must always make.

2. The contemplation of this superior life inspires, too, the noblest culture of character. As the sunshine of the morning lifts the mists, and reveal the landscape, and clothes it with a mantle of beauty, making the very rock burst into life and surround itself with verdure, so this influence from above, from the celestial realms which we have not reached, but toward which we are tending, and the gates of which Christ opens to us,

disperses from the spirit what is malefic or obscure, and prints a new and vital beauty on it all.

3. This thought is also a vast incentive to the culture of power in us, of personal, moral, and intellectual power, for which there must be range in those circles of life which we are to join, if we are the disciples of the Divine Lord.

IV. Here, then, you see at once THE MISCHIEVOUS TENDENCY OF SCEPTICAL THOUGHT, WHICH TENDS TO OBSCURE THIS VISION OF THE WORLD TO COME, and to make it signify a mere fancy, a mere dream of the world’s youth, which, as the race goes on, will more and more be dissipated, as the tinted clouds of morning disappear when the sun rides higher and higher to the meridian.

V. HERE IS THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. I do not find the most striking prophecies of the future life in any mere words of Scripture. I find them in the fact that He who had the power of miracle in His hands surrendered Himself to death, that afterward He might open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. There is the supreme glory of the celestial realms manifested to me by the agony of that death! The gospel is not simply a philosophy of religion, or a law of living. It is an apocalypse showing the heavens to us, and bringing thus its Divine benediction on every life. Here is the Divine mission of preaching; here is the beauty of every sacrament; here the glory of every Church. Here is the hidden meaning and blessedness which the thought of heaven brings in the events which seem most painful. So when our beloved friends pass from us; so when misfortunes come upon us; this thought of the higher life comes to cheer and comfort. (R. S. Storrs, D. D.)The Christian runner in relation to his spectators

I. THE CHRISTIAN RUNNER IS AN OBJECT OF DEEP INTEREST TO HIS SPECTATORS.

1. The position of the spectators. They surround the Christian runner.2. Their number. Vast.

II. THE CHRISTIAN RUNNER SHOULD PUT FORTH GREAT EFFORTS BECAUSE OF HIS SPECTATORS.

1. He should divest himself of every encumbrance. Ceremonialism, religious errors, business perplexities, fear of man, inveterate prejudices, sinful propensities.

2. He should avoid the sin to which he is most peculiarly prone.

Pride, covetousness, intemperance, evil-speaking, anger.3. He should maintain great self-possession. “Run with patience.”

III. THE CHRISTIAN RUNNER HAS AN OBJECT BEFORE HIM, FROM WHICH HIS THOUGHTS SHOULD NOT BE DIVERTED by his spectators. “Looking unto Jesus.”

1. The work of Jesus. 2. The history of Jesus. 3. The exaltation of Jesus. (Homilist.)

The moral influence of departed saints:The North American Indians believed that when the flowers faded in the forest

and prairie their beauty passed into the rainbow: thus our kindred and companions, the joy and pride of our homes and churches, fade away; but, lifting our eyes, we see our lost ones blossom forth again in the holier beauty of the rainbow about the throne. The text reminds us that these exalted ones exercise towards us a morally helpful influence. We are not to think of our exalted brethren as forming in the midst of heaven a brilliant cloud, admirable in the eye of imagination, yet exercising no real practical influence over the earth; but as a cloud full of mystic rain and dew, imparting life and beauty to those who dwell on the earth. Our beatified friends become our moral helpers.

I. BY DIVERTING OUR ATTENTION FROM THIS TO THE ETERNAL WORLD. As the dove sent from the ark, returning no more, reminded Noah that a new world was blooming for him; so these departed ones who return no more, daily and powerfully remind us that another and brighter world is blooming for us beyond death’s cold flood, and in earnest we prepare to leave this storm-tossed ark. The “cloud of witnesses” cause us to look above the dust; gazing after their departing forms we find ourselves standing face to face with eternity, and thus acquire the seriousness, spirituality, and strength of the Christian character.

II. BY ENHANCING THE CHARM OF THE CELESTIAL WORLD. The departed saints humanise heaven, interpret it, render it more fascinating. It is true that the grand charm of the skies is the vision and fellowship of the glorious God, yet it is not less true that every saint who passes into paradise invests it with a fresh and powerful influence. Each crowned friend makes us understand heaven better, makes us prize it the more, makes us strive more ardently to reach its bright and wealthy plains.

III. BY INCREASING OUR SENSE OF SELF-RESPECT. Our departed ones are no longer before us in weariness and humiliation, but crowned with

inconceivable and unfading splendours; and as we gaze upon them a new conception of our spiritual capacity takes possession of us--we feel that we belong to a race of conquerors and kings. It is said that the Kohei-noor diamond is only half its original size, the other half being in a distant country, where it was found in the possession of some one who used it as a common flint. Thus our churches, our families, are broken into two parts; one portion being exulted to the palace of the skies, the other fragment remaining in this lower realm, and used to ends apparently most commonplace and servile; yet we cannot contemplate the broken jewel, shining in the palace of the King, without thinking more highly of this other portion below, and watching it with intenser care lest its beauty should be dimmed, or its preciousness impaired, or its safety imperilled. Our celestial kinsmen minister to us, for they exalt our conception of the nature we possess, of the inheritance to which we are destined.

IV. BY GIVING US THE SENSE OF AN ABIDING SACRED PRESENCE. The Jewish legend relates that Joseph was saved by the spirit of his mother, when he was tempted to sin in the ]and of Egypt. This legend is founded in the truth that the powerful and blessed memory of our dead is a preservative against sin, a strengthening to virtue. And this is the precise idea of Paul in our text. “We are surrounded,” says he to his Hebrew brethren, “by a great cloud of heroes; let us, under the eyes of these pure, noble, valiant spirits, act a worthy part; let us labour to be as pure, noble, valiant as they were.” Thus again are the glorified ones our helpers; these beatified spectators put upon us a sweet constraint to walk as they also walked, so that we may triumph as they also triumphed.

V. BY THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THEIR SYMPATHY. Altered in many respects, the glorified saints have still the same hearts, and profoundly sympathise with us in all our upward struggles. The “ cloud “ about us is composed not of cold and curious spectators, but of warm and interested friends. Is not this fact a blessed help to us? The transfigured ones beckon us onward! upward! and the knowledge of this sympathy is to us in the day of tribulation a fountain of strength.

VI. BY STIMULATING OUR HOPE AND COURAGE. Again and again Satan almost paralyses us with his lofty vaunts of the might and majesty of evil. Sin rises before us so strong, so subtle, so mysterious and awful, that we are almost ready to surrender at discretion. The evil of our nature, the evil of the universe, seems well-nigh omnipotent. How fatal is this idea to our spiritual life! Nothing shatters this destructive imagination more than the triumphant death and

exaltation of the saints. To see our brother on the crystal walls I our sister crowned with amaranth! our friends with the palm and diadem! how this reassures us! We feel that Satan is not omnipotent, that sin is not invincible, that suffering is not unconquerable. (W. L.Watkinson.)

Lay aside every weightWeights and sins:

There is a regular series of thoughts in this clause, and in the one or two which follow it. If we would run well, we must run light; if we would run light, we must look to Christ. The central injunction is, “Let us run with patience”; the only way of doing that is the “laying aside all weights and sins”; and the only way of laying aside the weights and sins is, “looking unto Jesus.” Of course, the apostle does not mean some one special kind of transgression when he says, “the sin which doth so easily beset us.” He is speaking about sin generically--all manner of transgression. It is not, as we sometimes hear the words misquoted, “that sin which doth most easily beset us.” All sin is according to this passage a besetting sin.

I. THERE ARE HINDRANCES WHICH ARE NOT SINS. Sin is that which, by its very nature, in all circumstances, by whomsoever done, without regard to consequences, is a transgression of God’s law. A “weight” is that which, allowable in itself, perhaps a blessing, the exercise of a power which God has given us--is, for some reason, a hindrance in our running the heavenly race. The one word describes the action or habit by its inmost essence, the other describes it by its accidental consequences. Then, what are these weights? The first step in the answer to that question is to be taken by remembering that, according to the image of this text, we carry them about with us, and we are to put them away from ourselves. It is fair to say, then, that the whole class of weights are not so much external circumstances which may be turned to evil, as the feelings and habits of mind by which we abuse God’s great gifts and mercies, and turn that which was ordained to be for life into death. The renunciation that is spoken about is not so much the putting away from ourselves of certain things lying round about us that may become temptations, as the putting away of the dispositions within us which make these things temptations. It is an awful and mysterious power that which we all possess, of perverting the highest endowments, whether of soul or of circumstances, which God has given us, into the occasions for falling back in the Divine life. Just as men, by devilish ingenuity,

can distil poison out of God’s fairest flowers, so we can do with everything that we have.

II. And now, if this be the explanation of what the apostle means by “ weights”--legitimate things that hinder us in our course towards God--there comes this second consideration, IF WE WOULD RUN, WE MOST LAY THESE ASIDE. There are two ways by which this injunction of my text may be obeyed. The one is, by getting so strong that the thing shall not be a weight, though we carry it; and the other is, that feeling ourselves to be weak, we take the prudent course of putting it utterly aside. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)Weights

I. THE “WEIGHTS”--what are they? 1. The “ weight” of unforgiven sin. How that hinders many. You have offended

a father or teacher or friend--you have been guilty of disobedience or untruthfulness or dishonesty. How heavy it is! What a weight it is! If it has not been found out it lies like lead on your heart. How it hinders you in everything you put your hands to! Or the fault has been discovered, and you are in disgrace. Your dearest friends are displeased. You feel as if there were a great gulf between you and them. You are unhappy. You cannot get on with anything. You are just like one weighed down under a heavy burden. Whether it is work or play, company or solitude, there is a weight dragging you down in all. Now if it is so with sin as committed against man, what shall we say of sin as committed against God! How different your life would be if your sin were all forgiven; how different your worship would be; how different your work would be!

2. The “weight “ of unsubdued sin. 1 shall try to explain what I mean by this. I shall suppose we are setting out on a long voyage. We have storms and contrary winds to contend with, and sometimes icebergs and dangerous rocks and opposing currents. But we have what is even worse than these. Some of the ship’s crew are mutinous. They will not obey orders. They try to set the other sailors up against the captain. They damage the ship’s machinery. They reverse the engines. They put out the fires. They do everything they can to provoke and hinder. And the consequence is, the ship’s progress is seriously interfered with. Sometimes she comes to a stand altogether. In any case the voyage is slow and uncomfortable, as compared with what it should have been. At times it seems as if all on board must go to the bottom. Now what is wanted is, that the mutineers

should be subdued--changed into obedient and right-hearted seamen, or put in irons and kept from doing harm. So long as they are unsubdued they are a “weight” that seriously hinders. Now, is there no “weight,” no hindrance of this kind with you? Is there no stubborn will that disobeys, and must needs be broken if things are to get on at all? What of your temper that bursts into passion on the slightest provocation, and in words or looks or actions gets outlet to itself, in a way that may well alarm? What of your pride and vanity? What of your selfishness, that disregards others and is always seeking your own gratification and pleasure? What of secret sins which you try to conceal, but which are always growing stronger, and if unsubdued will go on as they are doing, burning like a fire within, and eating out your very heart and soul? So long as these have the power which they have now, every now and then getting the better of you, your life can neither be happy nor good.

3. The “weight” of evil habits. I do not refer so much here to single acts that are out and out bad and sinful. I refer more to things that may seem so far harmless at the beginning, but are apt to be repeated and to grow upon one, till they become habits, and rule him and hold him in chains. There is, for instance, the habit of procrastination--of putting off, instead of doing a thing at once. That grows terribly upon one, and becomes a hindrance of a very serious kind. There is the habit of drinking. There is the habit of idle and unprofitable reading, not to speak of what is positively bad. It consumes precious time, it takes away relish for prayer and for the Bible and all solid reading, it excites without doing any good, it takes away the heart from God. There is the habit of keeping company with unprofitable companions.

4. The last “weight” I shall mention is that of care. Perhaps this may seem not very much in your way, and more for your fathers and mothers. And yet I know even young hearts have their care--about lessons, and work otherwise, often not knowing what to do--with sorrows which are sometimes heavy and bitter enough. I am sure there are none of you who do not know something about these “weights,” and could tell how they hinder you in what is good. They will have much to do in making you the men and women that you shall be. And hence the great importance of looking at the matter, and that at once.

II. WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH THE WEIGHTS? Our text says they are to be “laid aside”--put off--cast away. Now the question is, how is this to be done? and to this question I have various answers to give.

1. By coming to Christ. The first “weight” to be got quit of is that of unforgiven sin, and like “Christian’s” burden, that can only be got rid of at the Cross.

2. By drawing power from Christ. It is just like a man with all the resources of the bank at his call. He can have no fear of wanting anything. Christ has all that any of us can need, and He has it for us. Faith is just leaning upon Christ--looking to Christ--drawing upon Christ for everything.

3. By prayer. When we feel our own weakness, what can we do but cry to the Strong for strength?

4. By effort. We have the battle to fight, not in our own strength, but in the strength which Jesus gives. Now I wish to call special attention before closing to this--that we are to lay aside every weight. There is to be no sparing. Everything that hinders must go. (J. H. Wilson, D. D.)

Spiritual weights:Spiritual weights are of many descriptions. They may originate in the very

senses. Life in the world, in the enjoyment of good things, in the pursuit of wealth and position, may grow to such unwieldy proportions that the Christian conscience has enough to do to vitalise the mass, and cannot energise it to a race. Then the play of the ordinary human affections and social human instincts is allowed such preponderance, that the man becomes gregarious, has so absorbed the opinions and prejudices and criticisms of his circle, that swift, decisive, forward motion is impossible. He lies, like a great hulk in the wash of worldly opinion, without helm or sail. Big, human-hearted he may be, but power of initiative or incentive has he none. But some will add to their faith, tradition. They must keep on with usages which had been put away--aye, and add mere ordinances of men. And now, clogged in every organ of the soul, they are ready to give up in despair. The superinduced mass of ceremonial, imparting no strength, is closing round the vitals of living faith and hindering its every movement. But in addition to habits of mind and life hindering men from spiritual progress, there are weights imposed by men on themselves, which hinder advance and enfeeble the soul. They have their money in so many ventures, they are pursuing at one time so many schemes, or they are so engrossed in the one or two to which they have given themselves up, that they have little or no time for serious thought. Yea, they cannot shift their thoughts out of the worldly

rut when they have time. They must have distraction, pleasure, society, travel, to relieve the jaded mind. And it is not merely in business that men put on weights. Some live in a whirl of social engagements, others to exalt their sense of self-importance, or from nobler motives heap on public engagements; yea, not a few in this our time are crowding on the back of every day so many spiritual or religious engagements that the life of God in them is weighted in its advance. They are dwindling under the pressure, or, at all events, they are not growing in life and thought and will as they might grow. What are we to do? Throw all our engagements away? By no means. Steam would be a useless thing if it were not generated within an engine. It is by working on through the engine’s means that it becomes a power. And so the life of grace needs an environment of work and service through which to reveal its power. It must be embodied in deeds, and there is no lawful sphere in which grace may not shine. What I say is, that you may overload your engine and that you may overweight your grace. What is holding you down and keeping you back? Are you doing futile and unnecessary things--that is, things which, though innocent, are merely for self, apart from Christ? You cannot be wrong in putting them away. Are you doing too many things, so that you are distracted, and thus retarded? Remember that you are running the race of perfection, seeking entire likeness to Christ, and your very work will come to suffer if this religious dissipation go on. Rearrange, economise, lay aside every weight. (John Smith, M. A.)

The sin which cloth so easily beset usThe besetting sin

1. We have to strive against the whole body of sin, everything which is against the holy will of God, “every evil inclination, all iniquity and profaneness, neglect and haughtiness, strife and wrath, passion and corruption, indolence and fraud, every evil motion, every impure thought, every base desire, every unseemly thought.”

2. We have all, probably, some one besetting fault, which is our own special hindrance. Both of these we must learn by looking into ourselves. They vary in all. No two persons have exactly the same temptations, as no two minds are exactly alike. And so we ought not to judge of others, nor can we judge of ourselves by them. We must look into ourselves. We have, then, these two searches into ourselves to make: one into every part of ourselves; the other into that part of ourselves which is the weakest, and through which we most often fall. Of these, holy men recommend that we

should begin with our besetting fault. For this there are many reasons. It lies, most likely, at the root of many other faults. It burrows under ground, as it were, and comes up at a distance, where we look not for it. It branches out into other faults; it twines round and kills some grace; it hides itself behind other faults or virtues; it puts itself forth in the midst of them. It colours every other fault; it interferes with, or overshadows or overlays every grace. But the more this one fault spreads, the more, if you uproot it, you will clear of the field of your conscience, the more will your heart become the good ground, which, freed from thorns, shall bear fruit, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold, to life everlasting.

Thou hast, then, great reason to be most watchful to uproot thy besetting sin, because

1. It is the root of other sins, gives occasion to them, makes them as bad as they are, makes acts which would have no sin to be sinful, because they have this sin in them. And so, while thy besetting sin reigns in thy soul, it is the parent of many other sins; when it is destroyed many others die with it.

2. It is the sin which has most hold of thy mind, and so it is the cause why thou most often offendest God. It comes to thee oftenest, tempts thee most strongly, and where thou art the weakest and yieldest the most readily. It is called the besetting sin, because it continually besets thee--that is, it is always about thee, always on the watch for thee. It entangles thee at every step. More of a man’s sins are done through his besetting sin than through all besides. It becomes his companion. He becomes so inured to it that he does not think of it as sin, or justifies it, or, at least, pleads to himself that his nature is weak and that he cannot help it. Nature is weak; but grace is strong, yea, almighty.

3. Then, too, it is the occasion of a man’s worst sins, because a man yields his mind most to it, goes along with it, does it with pleasure. All sin is, to choose something else rather than God. But to choose a thing eagerly, with zest, taking delight in it against the wise love of God, this is the deadliest form of sin.

4. Then it will most likely be that, when not tempted in act, a man will be tempted to the thought of his besetting sin, both before and after. And so he acts his sin over again in thought, when he cannot in deed. Thus he may multiply his sin beyond all power of thought. Such, then, are grounds from the nature of the besetting sin itself, why thou shouldest earnestly

and specially strive against it. It is thy deadliest enemy; that which most keeps thee from God, if unhappily thou art separated from Him; if not, still it is that which most offends Him, which hinders His love from flowing to thee and filling thee, which hinders thee from loving Him with thy whole heart. But then for thyself, too, it is thus that thou wilt have most courage to fight. It has been, no doubt, discouraging at some time to most of us that we could not become good all at once. Our garden, which we were to make clean, seemed full of weeds. They seemed to spring up fresh every day; how could we clean it? And so the weeds of our sins grew, as they would, left to themselves, with more luxuriant, foul rankness. It is said that one who thought thus, dreamed that He who had given him his garden to cleanse, came to him and asked him what he was doing. He said, “I lost all hope of cleaning my garden, so I laid down to sleep.” His Good Father said to him, “Clean every day as much as thou coverest, where thou art lying, and all will be in time cleaned.” So God speaks to us. “Set about some one thing for Me; set thyself to get rid of some one sin for love of Me, to become in one thing more pleasing to Me, and I will be with thee; I will give thee victory in this; I will lead thee on from victory to victory, from strength to strength; thou shalt run and not be weary; thou shalt walk, and not be faint.’” By the same strength by which thou prevailest over thy first enemy, thou shalt prevail over the rest. IN human warfare, those who fight are tired even by their victory; in Divine warfare, they are strengthened.

For they fight not in human weakness, but in Divine strength; and “ My strength,” He says, “is made perfect in weakness.” There is another good in fighting against thy besetting sin. Thou art gathered upon one point. Thou art striving with thy whole heart to please God in that point; thou wilt be asking for and using God’s grace for this. But therewith, secretly, thou wilt be transformed thyself. In learning to subdue one sin, thou wilt have been learning how, in time, to subdue all. Thou wilt have learnt the wiles of the enemy, the weakness of thy own heart, the force of outward temptations, the need to avoid, if thou canst, the outward occasion, but, in any case, the necessity of resisting in the first moment of assault. Thou wilt know, for thyself, the might which God gives thee when thou so resistest, the power of instant prayer. Thou wilt have felt the peril of tampering with sin, the value of watchfulness, the danger of security after thou hast conquered. Thou wilt have tasted the blessedness of gathering up thy whole mind to serve God, and giving thyself to Him morning by morning, to please Him

in this, and not to displease Him. Thou wilt have known, in thine own soul, the value of obeying at once any suggestions which, by His Holy Spirit or in thy conscience, He giveth thee to avoid this or do that. (E. B.Pusey, D. D.)Causes of propensity to peculiar vices

I. THE PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF OUR BIAS OR PROPENSITY TO SOME PARTICULAR VICE.

1. A propensity to particular sins may be complexional, derived from constitutional frame and temperament. Men are born with different propensities to pleasure, avarice, ambition, resentment, malice, envy, or the like. They may, indeed, by various methods be cultivated, and acquire vigour; but the seeds of them seem to be natural to the soil, and, in proportion to our neglect of them become still more difficult to be extirpated.

2. Another occasion of propensity to particular vices is, the power of custom or habit; which is commonly reputed a second nature, a kind of new nature ingrafted upon the former; and is often, in its influence and effects, not much inferior to it. It is to this principle, e.g., not to nature, that we may ascribe the vice of intemperance. Nature approves moderation; is disgusted and oppressed by excess. But custom leads men beyond the temperate limits marked out by nature into the extremes of intemperance; where, though nature denies them permanent pleasures, they form to themselves some that are fantastic, and subsist only in imagination. Another sin into which men are led by mere custom, and by nothing else, is the common practice of profaning the name of God.

3. Another occasion of a bias or inclination to some particular vice, may arise from our situation and condition of life. Every situation is exposed to some peculiar inconvenience; every condition of life to its own trials. Thus, affluence and poverty have each their respective inducements. And the same observation might be extended to the different periods of life, and to different professions and employments.

II. THE OBLIGATION INCUMBENT ON US, OF ENDEAVOURING TO CORRECT OR LAY IT ASIDE. The greater the propensity we feel in ourselves towards any culpable passion or failing, with the more care should we guard against it. It is in our power to maintain the authority of reason, to oppose the corruptions of our nature and the dominion of evil habits; to resist seducements from objects without, and temptations from passions within us. This is the proper

work and business of religion: this the duty which God requires at our hands; and has therefore, undoubtedly, given us ability to perform. One great obstacle, indeed, to the correcting or guarding against the sin that most easily besets us, is the difficulty we often find in discovering and detecting it. Such likewise is the prepossession in our own favour, so flattering the glass that self-love holds before us, that this also prevents us from seeing our deformities, and marking the true features and complexion of the mind. Quick-sighted as we all are to the faults or foibles of others, we do not, or will not, with the same facility discern our own. Our passions are our apologists; they plead for our vices, and mislead our judgment. This may be a monition to us, to scrutinise with the strictest caution our own heart, to look well if there be any culpable inclination or passion lurking in it, that we may not be deceived by any flattering reports of our character made by self-partiality. To assist us in forming a Tight judgment of our conduct, and seeing it in a true light, the best method perhaps would be, to put ourselves as much as may be out of the question; to divest ourselves of all concern in it; and to suppose that we are passing judgment, not on ourselves, but on another person. (G. Carr, B.A.)The besetting sin

I. THE BESETTING SIN IS A REALITY IN CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. Every character has its weak points, just as every fort and every line of battle.

II. THE BESETTING SIN HAS VARIOUS OUTWARD FORMS. Just as some diseases in the human system manifest themselves at one place in one person, and at another place in another person, so sinfulness in the moral system comes to the surface at different points in different people. To one person the besetting sin may be uncleanness of imagination; to another, irritability of temper. It not infrequently happens that several forms of the besetting sin afflict the same person. In some form or another we all have a besetting sin; and it greatly interferes with both our happiness and our usefulness.

III. THE BESETTING SIN CAN BE OVERCOME. 1. Learn what our weak points are. 2. Pray every day for special help at the weak points. 3. Guard these points with special care. 4. Cultivate holiness in general. 5. There is great hope for those who are struggling for the mastery over

besetting sins. (The Preachers’ Monthly.)A besetting sin dulls spiritual perception

David Rittenhouse, of Pennsylvania, was a great astronomer. He was skilful in measuring the sizes of planets and determining the position of the stars. But he found that, such was the distance of the stars, a silk thread stretched across the glass of his telescope would entirely cover a star; and thus a silk fibre appeared to be larger in diameter than a star. Our sun is said to be 886,000 miles in diameter, and yet, seen from a distant star, could be covered, hidden behind a thread when that thread was stretched across the telescope. Just so we have seen some who never could behold the heavenly world. They always complained of dulness of vision when they looked in the heavenly direction. You might direct their eyes to the Star of Bethlehem through the telescope of faith and holy confidence; but, alas! there is a secret thread, a silken fibre, which, holding them in subserviency to the world, in some way obscures the light; and Jesus, the Star of Hope, is eclipsed, and their hope darkened. A very small sin, a very little self-gratification, may hide the light. To some, Jesus, as Saviour, appears very far off. He shall be seen where the heart lets nothing intervene. The danger of impediments:

At Sidler Tchiflik three men sprang on to the train just as it was starting, and clung to the carriage-doors. The guard saw them, but dared not push them off for fear of killing them, yet could not venture to stop the train on account of the delay this would have caused. He therefore beckoned to the men to creep slowly along the side of the carriages after him. It was a terrible walk, and made my blood run cold to see it. The poor men were wet, benumbed, and awkward. Each had a bundle on his shoulder--one on a stick, one on a gun, one on a sword. As they crept slowly along, hanging on for their lives, first one bundle, then another, dropped off, till at last, after an agony of suspense, they were safely landed in a cattle-truck, having lost the very little all that they possessed. (Lady Brassey.)The injury of a besetting sin:

The old proverb hath it, “Here’s talk of the Turk and the Pope, but ‘tis my next neighbour that does me the most harm.” It is neither popery nor infidelity that we have half so much cause to dread as our own besetting sins. We want more Protestants against sin, more Dissenters from carnal maxims, and more Nonconformists to the world. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Besetting sins

A man’s besetting sin is the one that jumps with his inclinations. Does he love mirthfulness? Then he must be careful lest he runs into excessive levity and play the harlequin. He will be tempted to make jests of sacred things. A minister ought

not to be a monk; but neither should he be a social comedian. Does a man love ease? Then he always interprets those providences in his own favour which allow him to shirk hard work and swing in his hammock. Does he love flattery and eclat? Then he is tempted to seek applause, and to imagine that he is serving God when he is only burning incense on the altar of self-worship. The worst enemy is the one which wears an honest disguise, Look out for selfishness. It is the “old Adam” lurking behind every hedge. It will always keep place with you if you give it the upper baud. Keep no league with it; for Christ will never abide in the same heart with that subtle and greedy tyrant. A Christian is never safe, never strong, never true to Christ, unless he is constantly “collaring” ever sinful and selfish passion, and forcing it into unconditional surrender. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)The deadly character of secret sin:

Canon Wilberforce said that one day, while walking in the Isle of Skye, he saw a magnificent specimen of the golden eagle, soaring upward. He halted, and watched its flight. Soon he observed by its movements that something was wrong. Presently it began to fall, and soon lay dead at his feet. Eager to know the reason of its death, he hastily examined it, and found no trace of gunshot wound; but he found that it held in its talons a small weasel, which, in its flight, was drawn near its body, and had sucked the life blood from the eagle’s breast. The same end befalls him who clings to some secret sin; sooner or later it will sap his life blood, and he falls. (C. W. Bibb.)One sin the soul’s ruin

There was but one crack in the lantern, and the wind has found it out and blown out the candle. How great a mischief one unguarded point of character may cause us! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The race that is set before usThe race to heaven

I. OUR COMMENCING THIS RACE. 1. It is not any race, but a particular one. “The race set before us.” 2. The introduction to this race is by regeneration (John 3:2; John 3:7). 3. We must lay aside every hindrance that would impede our progress.

II. OUR PROGRESS IN THIS RACE. 1. We must keep the course. 2. We must keep on in the way. 3. We must go on patiently under all difficulties.

4. We must keep the prize in view. 5. We must persevere to the end.

III. OUR FINISHING THIS RACE. 1. The certainty of having the prize. 2. The prize will be a glorious and enduring one. 3. The prize will be a just one. “Crown of righteousness.” 4. The honour connected with the bestowment of this crown. (The Evangelical

Preacher.)I. RELIGION IN ITS ENCOURAGEMENTS.

The race1. Those who have departed from us are existing. Death is not annihilation.2. The dead are in a state of conscious activity. These men are not asleep,

but observe. 3. They are not far from us, for we “are compassed about” by them. 4. They observe our line of life--are witnesses.

II. RELIGION IN ITS ACTIVITIES. 1. Religion requires self-denial. 2. Religion requires the conquest of sin. 3. Religion required personal effort. 4. Religion requires patience. 5. Religion requires thought and attention.

III. RELIGION IN ITS MODEL. 1. Our model is regarded as the inspirer of Christian life--“the author and

finisher of our faith,”--the originator in us of the life of God, which life can never be brought into maturity unless He becomes, by His gracious presence in the heart, its finisher.

2. Paul then refers to the Saviour’s object in His life of toil--the object of His model life, “who for the joy,” etc.

3. Finally, the apostle refers to the many sufferings, mental and physical, connected with His model life. (E. Lewis, B. A.)

The Christian raceI. THE RACE is one of

1. Christian knowledge. 2. Christian experience. 3. Christian duties. 4. Christian sufferings. The phrase implies

II. THE DUTIES connected with it. Lay aside every weight--sin of every kind--but particularly

1. Attachment to the company with which formerly connected. 2. Love of the world, and inordinate attachment even to our lawful calling. 3. Improper fear of man; accommodation and compromise of the fear of God.

And the besetting sin! III. THE ENCOURAGEMENT afforded.

1. The cloud of witnesses. These are testifiers as well as spectators. 2. Jesus Himself. And He as an example also, “who for the ,joy,” &c. Can we

be tempted or suffer as He did? And remember, we, too, shall sit down on His throne. (J. Summerfield, M. A.)

Stripping for the raceI. THE SPEED OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. “Let us run.” We must not sit still to

be carried by the stream. We must not loiter and linger as children returning from a summer’s ramble. We must not even walk as men with measured step. The idea of a race is generally competition; here it is only concentration of purpose, singleness of aim, intensity. How earnest men are around us! Newton poring over his problems till the midnight wind sweeps over his pages the ashes of his long extinguished fire. Reynolds sitting, brush in hand, before his canvas for thirty-six hours together, summoning into life forms of beauty that seemed glad to come. Dryden composing in a single fortnight his ode for St. Cecilia’s Day. Buffon dragged from his beloved slumbers to his more beloved studies. And the beloved biographer, who records these traits, himself rising with the dawn to prepare for the demands of his charge. In a world like this, and with a theme like ours, we ought not to be languid, but devoted, eager, consumed with a holy love to God, and with a passion for the souls of men. Then should we make progress in the knowledge of the Word of God, and enter into the words of one of the greatest spiritual athletes that ever lived Philippians 3:14).

II. WE MUST RUN FREE OF WEIGHTS. There would be little difficulty in maintaining an ardent spirit if we were more faithful in dealing with the habits and indulgencies which cling around us and impede our steps. Thousands of Christians are like water-logged vessels. They cannot sink, but they are so saturated with inconsistencies, and worldliness, and permitted evil, that they can only be towed with difficulty into the celestial port. There is an old Dutch picture of a little child dropping a cherished toy from its bands; and, at first sight, its action seems unintelligible, until, at the corner of the picture, the eye is attracted

to a white dove winging its flight towards the emptied outstretched hands. Similarly we are prepared to forego a good deal, when once we catch sight of the spiritual acquisitions which beckon to us. And this is the true way to reach consecration and surrender. Do not ever dwell on the giving-up side, but on the receiving side. Keep in mind the meaning of the old Hebrew word for consecration, to fill the hand. There will not be much trouble in getting men to empty their hands of wood, hay, and stubble, if they see that there is a chance of filling them with the treasures, which gleam from the faces or lives of others, or which call to them from the page of Scripture. The world pities us, because it sees only what we give up; but it would hold its sympathy if it could also see how much we receive--“good measure, pressed down, and running over given into our bosoms.”

III. WE MUST LAY ASIDE BESETTING SIN. “Let us lay aside the sin which doth so closely cling to us” (R.V.). We often refer to these words; but do we not misquote them in divorcing them from their context? We should read them as part of the great argument running through the previous chapter. That argument has been devoted to the theme of faith. And surely it is most natural to hold that the sin which so closely clings to us is nothing else than the sin of unbelief, which is the opposite pole to the faith so highly eulogised. If that be a correct exegesis, it sheds new light on unbelief. It is no longer an infirmity; it is a sin. Men sometimes carry about their doubts, as beggars a deformed or sickly child, to excite the sympathy of the benevolent. But surely there is a kind of unbelief which should not meet with sympathy, but rebuke. It is sin which needs to be repented, to be resisted, and to receive as sin the cleansing of Christ.

1. Let us remember that the course is set before us by our heavenly Father, who therefore knows all its roughnesses and straitnesses, and will make all grace abound toward us, sufficient for our need. To do His will is rest and heaven.

2. Let us look off unto Jesus. Away from past failure and success; away from human applause and blame; away from the gold pieces scattered on the path, and the flowers that line either side. Do not look now and again, but acquire the habit of looking always; so that it shall become natural to look up from every piece of daily work, from every room, however small, from every street, however crowded, to His calm face; just as the sojourner on the northern shores of Geneva’s lake is constantly prone to look up from any book or work on which the attention may have been engaged, to

behold the splendour and glory of the noble range of snowcapped summits on the further shores. And if it seems hard to acquire this habitual attitude, trust the Holy Spirit to form it in your soul. Above all, remember that where you tread there your Lord trod once, combating your difficulties and sorrows, though without sin; and ere long you shall be where He is now. (F. B.Meyer, B. A.)

The race set before us:“Go ahead” was only half of David Crockett’s motto--and not the most important

half. “Be sure you are right” precedes. The faster the ship goes ahead, the greater the danger, if there is not a good watch on the bow and a strong hand on the wheel. To run well is of importance; to start right is of prime importance. “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” says the sacred writer. A great many men lose the prize by dropping out of the text altogether the clause which we have put in italics. Every man must find his own race before he begins to run. God has a work for every man that no other man can do quite as well; and he succeeds best who quickest finds what that work is, and sets himself to do it. Many a good writer has been spoiled to make an insolvent merchant; not a few good housekeepers to make execrable poets; now and then an execrable mechanic to make a poor preacher. A race has been set before me; and it is my duty to find out what that race is, and run it, and not waste life in regrets that I cannot run a different one, or life’s energies in unsuccessful attempts to do so. Patient running

I remember once climbing a great Alpine peak. I was fagged and out of sorts, and the strain was considerable. I was not enjoying it, but I knew I should enjoy it at the top. I had not any spare energy to talk or look about, so I kept looking for a couple of hours at the heels of the guide, who was in front and above me. That is going with patience. It is the holding out till the next glimpse of light comes from above. It is the determination of the runner, when the afternoon sun is blinding his eyes, and the afternoon languor weighing upon him, that he wilt run on. (J. F. Ewing, M.A.)

Looking unto JesusJesus the author and finisher of the Christian’s faith

I. “The author and finisher of faith” must be looked to as THE ONLY TEACHER OF RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES.

II. “The author and finisher of faith” must be looked to as THE PREACHER AND EXEMPLAR OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY.

III. “The author and finisher of faith” must be looked to as THE ALONE PROCURER OF SALVATION. (H. J. Stevenson, M. A.)Looking to Jesus, the secret of running well our Christian race

I. THE PERSON” SET FORTH HERE IS JESUS He, whose name is the light and glory of Scripture; whose coming and work formed the subject of ancient type, and symbol, and prophecy.

1. We are led to consider Him in His Divine nature and character. 2. The person set forth in the text is to be considered in His most gracious

undertaking on behalf of men. II. THE HABIT COMMENDED--“Looking unto Jesus.” This word expresses the

mental posture, which the apostle would have all Christians maintain in relation to Jesus, their Saviour-God. It is not a single, unrepeated act that he wishes here to enforce, but a holy habit of soul. As the gaze of the mariner, steering his vessel through perilous seas, is perpetually fixed upon the compass, so we, voyaging to eternity through the treacherous waters of time, must have eye and heart centred on Christ, as the sole director of our progress. The word expresses a continuous and sustained action of the inner man. But it does more. It not only means “ looking,” as the translation gives it, but looking off, or away. We are taught to look away from all else to “Jesus only?’ Let the counter attraction be what it may, its power is to be resisted: its spell is to be broken, and the full gaze of the soul is to concentrate itself on Immanuel alone, Now, in the direction of the apostle, as thus expounded, I think we are called to note particularly three suggested thoughts.

1. The entire sufficiency of Christ to meet all human requirements. 2. It is the sad tendency of man, notwithstanding, to turn to other

dependencies. 3. This tendency must be corrected, in order to Christ’s becoming all that He

would be to any. III. THE END CONTEMPLATED--that we may run well our Christian race; run it

free from entanglement; run it with purity; run it with patience; run it with perseverance. Oh! is there anything that can compare with these objects in the estimation of a believer? We may well ask, then, how the “ looking unto Jesus” will enable us to compass these objects; in other words, how it will secure that we shall run well our Christian race? And here the answer is threefold.

1. “Looking to Jesus” supplies the strongest motive to run well our Christian race; that is, love towards Himself. You know that fire and force are the

effect of a supreme affection; how it makes light of difficulties, and changes leaden feet into feet of angel swiftness. Love lightens toil, and makes even waiting more than endurable.

2. “Looking to Jesus” furnishes all needful strength for running well our Christian race. This is the act on our part that appropriates it for our various occasions and exigencies; just as plants, by opening out their leaves, to them the organs of assimilation, imbibe the light and dew, and distribute sustenance through their entire structure, so we, by “ looking to Jesus,” receive those communications of a spiritual kind, upon which the life of our souls and the vigour of our Christian walk depend.

3. “Looking to Jesus “ brings before us the highest example of a successful runner in the Christian race. When you are in doubt, ask, “What, in such a case, would my Master have done?” (C. M. Merry, B. A.)

Looking unto JesusI. WHY?

1. The best beings in the universe encourage it. 2. Our own needs demand it. We want a Mediator, Example,

Friend, such as He is.3. The great God enjoins it.

II. How? 1. By the study of His biography. 2. By communion with Christly souls. 3. By friendship with Himself.

III. WHEN? 1. At the beginning of the Christian life. 2. In all the encouragements and discouragements of life. 3. At death. (U. R. Thomas.)

The rule of the raceI. First, then, we are to look to Jesus as THE AUTHOR OF FAITH. The apostle

would have us view the Lord Jesus as the starter of the race. When a foot-race began, the men were drawn up in a line, and they had to wait for a signal. Those who were in the race had to look to the starter; for the runner who should get first by a false start would not win, because he did not run according to the rules of the race. No man is crowned unless he strives lawfully. The starter was in his place, and the men stood all waiting and looking. Our word at starting in the Christian life is, “Look unto Jesus.”

1. We have to look to Jesus, first, by trusting in that which He has wrought for us. It is described in these words: “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame.”

2. We also begin looking unto Jesus because of what He has wrought in us. II. But now we must look to Jesus as THE FINISHER OF FAITH. As Jesus is at

the commencement of the course, starting the runners, so He is at the end of the course, the rewarder of those who endure to the end. Those who would win in the great race must keep their eyes upon Him all along the course, even till they reach the winning-post.

1. You will be helped to look to Him when you remember that He is the finisher of your faith by what He has wrought for you; for the text saith,

“He endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” You also shall have heaven, for He has it; you shall sit upon the throne, for He sits there.

2. We are helped to run to the end, not only by what Jesus has done for us, but by what Jesus is doing in us.

III. Let us next consider our Lord Jesus as THE PATTERN OF OUR FAITH. Run, as Jesus ran, and look to Him as you run, that you may run like Him. How did our Lord pursue His course?

1. You will see this if you first note His motive: “Who for the joy that was set before Him.” The chief end of man is to glorify God; let it be my chief end, even as it was my Lord’s. Oh, that I might glorify Thee, my Creator, my Preserver, my Redeemer! To this end was I born, and for this end would I live in every action of my life. We cannot run the race set before us unless we feel thus.

2. Wherein are we to imitate Jesus? IV. Lastly, our text sets before us Jesus as THE GOAL OF FAITH We are to

run “looking unto Jesus” as the end that we should aim at. True faith neither goes away from Christ Jesus, nor takes a roundabout road to Jesus, nor so much as dreams of going beyond Jesus. Now, we are to run towards Him, looking unto Him. Looking to Jesus and running to Jesus will look well and run well together. The eyes outstrip the feet; but this also is well, for the feet will thus be made to move the faster. Look you that you may see more of Jesus. Let us run towards Jesus, that we may grow more like Him. It is one of the virtues of Jesus that He transforms into His own image those who look at Him. He photographs Himself

upon all sensitive hearts. Run, that you may come nearer to Jesus. Seek after more near and dear fellowship with Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Looking unto Jesus

The word denotes the unfixing of the eye from other objects, and the fixing it upon Him; the turning away of your vision from other attractions, either without or within, and turning them to Jesus only. This is the true position for the soul; and according as we occupy this position, will be the growth of our peace, of our holiness, of our strength and zeal.

1. The eye thus fixed upon Him must, however, be no divided eye, partly fixed on others, partly on Him. Nothing above or beneath must divide your eye, or withdraw Him from your gaze.

2. Again, it must be no wandering eye, as if it might roam over every object in the universe, provided only He were among the number. He must be the great central fascination, on which the eye fixes itself, and to which it ever reverts if for a moment it is withdrawn. There is no other object worthy of our gaze, no other fitted to fill our souls.

3. Again, it must be no careless or unwilling eye. A forced gaze there cannot be; a careless gaze on an object so Divinely glorious, so infinitely attractive, seems altogether incredible when you consider to whom you are looking. On Him all heaven is gazing, and can you turn away? On Him the Father is looking and saying, “Let thine eye rest where Mine is resting,” and can you turn away, as if not satisfied with that which satisfies the Infinite Father?

I. IN LOOKING, WHAT DO WE SEE? We see one who is the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person, the everlasting Son of the Father, yet, at the same time, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh--our kinsman, our brother. We see in Him God--God over all, yet an infant of days: God, yet a sorrowing man: God, yet a crucified criminal: God, yet a dying, buried man. The perfection of Godhead is in Him, yet the reality of manhood too. The infinite heart of God, yet the finite heart of man. Divine love, yet also human love. Condescending love as God, sympathising love as man. Paternal love as God, fraternal love as man. All excellency, all glory, all beauty, all perfection to be found in Him--unsearchable riches--for in Him “it hath p]eased the Father that all fulness should dwell.” But look a little deeper and what do you see? You see in this God-man, the Sin-bearer, “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” You see in Him one clothed and furnished thus, as I have described Him,

but clothed and furnished for the very purpose of being a fitting and sufficient sacrifice; the propitiation for our sins. We see in Him one who can take our very place, one who can stand where we should have stood before God, one who can bear what we should have borne, one who can endure what we should have endured.

II. IN LOOKING, HOW ARE WE AFFECTED? These things are not fitted merely to call up wonder; they go down into the very depths of our spiritual being, producing there the mightiest results, and effecting the most wondrous revelations and transformations.

1. In looking, the first thing that strikes us is the difference and contrast between our character and His. The first glimpse we get of Him makes us feel the extent of our sinfulness, our unlikeness to Him; and there is nothing so effectual for giving a sense of sin, or for deepening a sense of sin as this looking to the Holy One.

2. But then, in looking, a second thing that startles us is the full provision that is made in Him for meeting and for removing all these imperfections in us; so that the more that, in looking, we are troubled at the sight of our own hideous sinfulness, the more are our consciences pacified by the view which we get of His sin-bearing work as the “ Lamb without blemish and without spot”--“the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”

III. IN LOOKING, WHAT DO WE LEARN? We see in Jesus a model, and we begin to imitate Him. We see in Him the doer of the Father’s will, and we learn to do that will as He did it. We see in Him a willing sufferer for others, and we learn willingly to suffer. We see in Him a man that pleased not Himself, and we learn not to please ourselves. We see in Him a pattern of all meekness, and submissiveness, and gentleness, and kindness, and we learn from Him to be meek, and lowly, and gentle, and submissive, and kind, and humble--and thus it is that in looking to Him we are changed into His image from “glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Thus it is that in looking away from other objects we are prevented from imbibing the evil influences to which they have too long subjected us; and in looking to Him we are brought under the efficacious power of higher, purer, nobler, diviner influences. But the great feature in which the apostle presents Christ to us is His faith. He showed us how to believe, and believe even on this earth where there is everything to tempt our faith and to cherish unbelief. He showed us how to live by faith upon the Father, even in a world like this, that has cast off the Father. Let us look to Him then and learn of

Him, let us look to His footsteps and walk in them, following where He has led the way, and planting our feet where we find that His have been planted before us. (H. Boner, D. D.)Looking unto Jesus:

Here is a young man carrying something through a crowded Eastern market-place, or bazaar. It is a vessel with water in it. Observe how earnest and intent his face is, and how he never allows his eye to wander for a moment to what is going on round him I His teacher has told him to carry the vessel full of water--full to the very brim, through the bazaar, and to bring it back without having spilled a drop. And now you see the young man returning, pleased and triumphant, because he has succeeded in obeying the command. Not a single drop has been lost. The old teacher praises him, and then asks him what he saw as he was passing through the bazaar. “Saw! “ cries the young man, “why, I saw nothing.” “How can that be?” replies the teacher, “for I know that the very time when you were in the bazaar the Sultan with some of his chief attendants went by.” “Well, that may be,” said the young man; “but how could I see anything, or anybody, when I had my eyes fixed upon the water the whole time, and could think of nothing but how to carry it without spilling, as you told me to do?” “Ah!” said the teacher, “now you can understand how we may be so entirely occupied with some work that God has given us to do, as to be quite unconscious of the sinful pleasures of the world, which strive to attract our attention as we are passing through them.”

I. We regard the Lord Jesus AS OUR ONLY HOPE OF SALVATION. If we were standing on a wreck as it was settling down in the ocean, and a lifeboat were to come up alongside, what should we do? We should leave the wreck altogether--leave it behind us, “look away” from it, and jump into the lifeboat. Jesus Christ, then, is our only hope of salvation.

II. HE IS OUR ONLY EXAMPLE TO IMITATE. I have read somewhere of a traveller, who with his guide was crossing a high mountain in Switzerland. After journeying many miles, they came at last to a very dangerous pass, where just a little shelf of rock, and that partly worn away in places by the rain, ran round the face of a precipitous cliff, and was the only pathway by which they could possibly ascend to the top. Try to imagine their situation! Above them rose a steep rock, up the face of which no human being could climb, and below them was a precipice which went down straight, without a break, for nearly a thousand feet. And the traveller’s heart--though he was a courageous man--began to beat fast,

and his head began to swim, until he was in danger of falling over and being killed. The guide seeing this, called out (I should tell you that the guide was walking in front), “Do not look up or down, or you are a lost man. Look away from everything at me. Keep your eyes fixed on me, and where I set my foot, there do you place yours.” The traveller obeyed this command; the dizziness and the fear went away; and both the men crossed safely over the terrible pass. This story has always reminded me of “ looking away” unto Jesus, and of His leaving us an example that we should follow His steps.

III. HE IS THE ONLY BESTOWER OF ALL THE BLESSINGS WHICH WE ENJOY. Every good gift, and every perfect gift comes to us through Him. He is the channel which connects us with God. If we think a good thought, or do a good deed, it is owing to Christ. Shall we run negligently, as if we did not care much about it? No; we will run earnestly. Shall we give up when we have run part of the way? No; for it is “ he that endureth to the end that shall be saved,” and it were better never to have begun at all, than to begin and then leave off. Shall we say, “How hard, how tiresome it is to run this Christian race?” No; for the Lord Jesus Christ is with us all the time, strengthening, encouraging, upholding us. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)Looking unto Jesus

I. THE SPIRITUAL POSTURE IN WHICH CHRISTIANS ARE REQUIRED TO PLACE THEMSELVES.

1. “Looking unto Jesus,” in recognition of the relation of Jesus to us. As redeemed men this Jesus is all in all to us. He is called by various names: the last Adam, the Amen, the Alpha, the Omega, the Advocate, the Angel, our Apostle, Bread of Life, our Captain, our Chief Shepherd, the Chief Corner Stone, the Counsellor, the Day Spring, the Witness, the Great High Priest, the Head, the King, the Lamb, our Leader, our Life, our Light, the Star, the Morning Star, the Rock, the True Vine, the Way, the Word of God.

2. “Looking unto Jesus,” for direction from Jesus. He is our Master, and He appoints our services. He is our Teacher, He gives us our lessons. He is our Lord, He confers upon us all true honour and all real reward. He is our elder Brother; and acting the part of a Father. He provides for us, and He has charge of us.

3. “Looking unto Jesus” for the varied and constant help which He affords. Every name by which He is called represents some service which He is

prepared to render to us, or is actually rendering us, or some particular aspect of some service. In truth, Christ is to you what you require Him to be, if you will only let Him be what you need Him to be.

4. “Looking unto Jesus,” in confident expectation of the fulfilment of all His promises. Looking, therefore, as an expectant of blessings. Well, this involves knowledge of His power and trust in it. Knowledge, too, of His veracity, and of His fidelity, and a corresponding confidence.

5. “Looking unto Jesus” for recognition and for sanction. Why is it that so many Christians are so miserable, so out of temper, so weak? You find the reason here: they are always looking for recognition and sanction from men, from the Church of God, from their fellow disciples, and sometimes where they never ought to look for it, from the men of this world. Do you see how this is forbidden by the text? You are not to live looking to the disciples, you are not to live looking to the Church for recognition and for sanction, but turning your eyes upwards you are to be in a position to say with Peter, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” The mere professor does not think of thus “looking unto Jesus”; he keeps looking entirely at himself. The hypocrite, too, dare not look unto Jesus--he dare not. He has impudence enough, but he dare not look unto Jesus. He keeps his eye away from the eye of the Master. The backslider, too, he temporarily has ceased to look upon Jesus.

6. “Looking unto Jesus,” moreover, as an object of love. “Whom having not seen, ye love.”

II. THE REASON FOR IT. “Jesus is the author and finisher of faith.” Every wise man has a reason for his conduct, and every good man a good reason. A Christian should be the most intelligent, and rational of his class. If he be “looking unto Jesus,” he ought to know the reason why. Why look unto Jesus? Why not to himself? Why not to the cloud of witnesses? Why not to his fellows in the race? Why look unto Jesus? The apostle gives the answer. “Jesus is the author and finisher of faith.”

1. In the first place Jesus occupies a singular position as it respects faith. He is “the author, or prince of faith,” being Himself the highest example of faith. Does it occur to you that when Christ bids you believe, He bids you do what He did? He was a believer. His human nature had in it the strongest possible faith, and on this account you may call Jesus “ the prince of faith.” But He is “the prince of faith” in another sense.

2. We speak now of Christ as a man (not ignoring, however, His Divine nature), and we say of Him, that He is “the author or prince of faith,” because He is the first man who on this earth has maintained faith. The first Adam lost faith in God; and no man could set Adam the first up as a prince; but the second Adam maintained faith even in the severest trials, and, therefore, you may call Jesus “ the prince of faith.”

3. Again, He is “the prince of faith” as leading us into faith. He goes before us in the path of faith, and as leading us into faith, and as guiding us into this path, He is “the author,” or the “prince of faith.” Then, as Himself continuing in faith to the end, He is “the finisher.” And as maintaining and consummating our faith He is also “the finisher.” Is our race faith? God commands that faith to Himself. He says, believe on Me. Is our race faith? God draws that faith more and more strongly to Himself. He can keep it, and He alone can maintain it. Therefore in running this race of faith, it is our manifest duty to run, “looking unto Jesus” “the prince,” mark, in all these respects, “of faith.” (S. Martin.)

Looking unto JesusI. WHY SHOULD WE LOOK TO JESUS?

1. Because He is the supremest object of human interest. When we remember everything that goes to make up what we may call “the things of Christ,” the preparation for His coming, and all that centred in Him, the various movements of the preceding generations, the symptomatic changes alike in the political and religious condition of men; then His own history, when He went about living His life, speaking His words, doing His work; and then what He has since been, the place He has taken in human regard, the influence He has exercised upon human life--what a wondrous series of interesting objects we meet with!

2. Because we find in Him the answer to the deepest needs of our souls. 3. Because He is the dearest object of human love.

II. WHERE SHALL WE SEE JESUS? 1. Look at Him in the scenes of His earthly career. 2. Look at Him in the place of His atoning death. 3. Look at Him on the throne of His triumphant mediation.

III. WHEN SHALL WE LOOK TO JESUS? 1. In the time of your temptation.

2. In the moment of penitence. By thy side He stands with an arm extended, and will take thee back to His bosom and His love.

3. In the hour of need. That is every hour, for every hour am I needy, and always do I require that Saviour to be near. (L. D. Bevan.)

Looking unto Jesus:The expression before us is one of the pithy golden sayings which stand out

here and there on the face of the New Testament, and demand special attention. It is like “to me to live is Christ,” “Christ is all and in all,” “Christ who is our life,” “He is our peace,” “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” To each and all of these sayings one common remark applies. They contain far more than a careless eye can see on the surface. But the grand question which rises out of the text is this: What is that we are to look at in Jesus?

I. First and foremost, if we would look rightly to Jesus, we must look daily at His DEATH, as the only source of inward peace. We all need peace. Now there is only one source of peace revealed in Scripture, and that is the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and the atonement which He has made for sin by that vicarious death on the Cross. To obtain a portion in that great peace, we have only to look by faith to Jesus, as our substitute and Redeemer.

II. In the second place, if we would look rightly to Jesus, we must look daily to His LIFE OF INTERCESSION, in heaven, as our principal provision of strength and help. While we are fighting Amalek in the valley below, one greater than Moses is holding up His hands for us in heaven, and through His intercession we shall prevail.

III. In the third place, if we would look rightly to Jesus, we must look at His EXAMPLE as our chief standard of holy living. We must all feel, I suspect, and often feel, how hard it is to regulate our daily lives by mere rules and regulations. But surely it would cut many a knot and solve many a problem if we could cultivate the habit of studying the daily behaviour of our Lord as recorded in the four Gospels, and striving to shape our own behaviour by its pattern. We may well be humbled when we think how unlike the best of us are to our example, and what poor blurred copies of His character we show to mankind. Like careless children at school we are content to copy those around us with all their faults, and do not look constantly at the only faultless copy, the One perfect man in whom even Satan could find nothing. But one thing at any rate we must all admit. If Christians during the last eighteen centuries had been more like Christ, the

Church would certainly have been far more beautiful, and probably have done far more good to the world.

IV. Fourthly, and lastly, if we would look to Jesus rightly, we must look forward to His SECOND ADVENT, AS THE TRUEST FOUNTAIN OF HOPE AND CONSOLATION. That the early Christians were always looking forward to a second coming of their risen Master, is a fact beyond all controversy. In all their trials and persecutions, under Roman Emperors and heathen rulers, they cheered one another with the thought that their own King would soon come again, and plead their cause. It ought to be the consolation of Christians in these latter days as much as it was in primitive times. (Bishop Ryle.)A life-motto:

The great object on which we are to fix our gaze, all through life is--Jesus. It is with Him, above all else, that we must have to do.

1. “Looking unto Jesus,” we are to trust Him as our Saviour. The first thing we want is a Saviour. I once saw a ship at sea, off the east coast of Scotland, in a storm. Her sails were torn to tatters, her masts were broken, her anchor was dragging. It needed no signal of distress, for it was within sight of the shore. We could hardly keep our feet out of doors. The wind blew a hurricane and the rain pelted. Those of us who could, got into the shelter of the pier, and, glass in hand, watched the movements of the hard-pressed sloop. The lifeboat was launched and pushed through the surf, and after being carried past the vessel once and again, at length got alongside of those who so much needed help. That lifeboat came to them as a saviour. And how were they saved? By trusting it. But perhaps some of you say, “What has all this to do with ‘looking unto Jesus’? The text is about ‘looking,’ not trusting.” Well, but “looking” means trusting. A poor but respectable widow once called on me in great distress. She had fallen behind with her rent, and her landlord had threatened to sell every article of furniture she had, and to turn her and her children to the street. I told her I would see to the matter, and that she might look to me for her rent. She went joyfully home, and I can suppose her children to have said to her, “Mother, how are you looking so happy? Have you got the money?” “No,” she answers, “but it is all right. The minister said I might look to him for the rent, and I know it is as sure as if I had the money in my hand.” That just means--she trusted me for it. The looking and the trusting were one and the same thing. Now, the Lord Jesus bids you look to Him--away

from all else--away from your own doing or deserving- away from the godliest and best friends you have. He says, “None of them can save you.” He says, “Look unto Me and be saved: for I am God.”

2. “Looking unto Jesus”--we are to copy Him as our pattern. Now in the chapter before that from which our text is taken (chap. 11.), you have a wonderful list of worthies. It is just like a portrait-gallery, containing the likenesses of some of the best men the world ever saw. And as you read the descriptions you might ask, “May we take these as our pattern?” Well, so far, and yet only so far. They were not perfect patterns, and so are not safe to be followed in everything. And so the writer points away from them all, and as it were, says, “Do not stop at these. Do not be content to copy these. I can give you better than any of them all--a higher, safer, surer guide.” You cannot keep too close to Him. You cannot copy Him too exactly. In the smallest things as in the greatest, seek to be what He was, to do what He did, to follow in His footsteps.

3. “Looking unto Jesus “-we are to lean upon Him as our strength. Perhaps you say, “It must be very difficult to be what Christ was--to do what Christ did. He was so good and I am so evil: He was so strong and I am so weak: He was so bold and I am so cowardly. Indeed, it seems impossible. I do not see how it could ever be.” But if He were to give you His strength, it would not be so difficult, would it? Sometimes when I have been coming home late at night, after a long day’s work, I have felt very tired, and the uphill parts of the road seemed very long and very steep. But a friend came alongside, and when I put my arm into his, and had his support and his company, the tiredness left me, and I could have walked half a dozen of miles, and sometimes did walk backwards and forwards for a good half hour. His arm and his company were strength to me. That is what Jesus does. He says, “Lean on Me! Lean hard!” He, as it were, lets you put your arm into His. He lets you draw upon His strength. (J. H. Wilson, D. D.)

Looking to JesusI. UNDER WHAT ASPECTS ARE WE TO LOOK TO JESUS?

1. Saviour. 2. Master. 3. Example.

II. IN WHAT SCENES ARE WE TO LOOK TO JESUS? 1. Common duty.

2. Times of temptation. 3. Difficulties. 4. Means of grace.

III. WHAT SORT OF LOOKS THEY SHOULD BE? 1. Trustful. 2. Obedient. 3. Loving. (The Weekly Pulpit.)

Advantages obtained by looking unto Jesus1. The first of these is peace; peace with God, and peace in the conscience.

True peace comes from God the Father, through the blood of Jesus; and can only be enjoyed by looking unto Him.

2. Humiliation is another advantage derived from looking to Jesus. The heart of man is naturally proud; and will never be effectually humbled, but by a believing contemplation of the greatest example of humility that ever appeared in the world. That humiliation, especially, which becomes us as rebellious creatures, will be best promoted by looking at a suffering Saviour, bending under the load of our guilt in the garden and on the Cross. Who can make a mock at sin, that beholds the awful severity of God in punishing it in the person of His innocent Son, our Surety? Who can be proud, when he sees the Lord of all, destitute of a place where to lay His head, and enduring poverty and shame for our sakes?

3. This also affords the best lesson of patience; and for this purpose particularly, we are exhorted, in the text, to look to Jesus; for, it is added, He “endured the Cross, despising the shame.” If we would be Christians indeed, we must “arm ourselves with the same mind” (1   Peter 4:1 ); and, according to His direction, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Matthew 16:24).

4. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and the most powerful principle of gospel holiness. But how shall this be obtained? We answer, By looking unto Jesus. “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1   John 4:19 ). The love of our brother is closely connected with the love of God; the former can never exist without the latter, and always accompanies it. Looking to Jesus, the Friend of sinners, who came to seek and to save the lost, who went about doing good, is the most effectual means of curing the selfishness of our hearts, of softening the asperity of our tempers, and of

exciting compassion and benevolence in our souls, towards all our fellow-men.

5. Looking to Jesus is the best expedient to destroy our inordinate regard to this present world. Christ was dead to it, and separate from it; and He says to His followers, “Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16). A glance of His glory, and a sense of interest in His favour, will make us indifferent alike to its smiles and its frowns; and all the glittering objects that men pursue with such avidity, will appear as unworthy of our affections as the painted toys of children.

6. There is one more advantage to be expected from looking to Jesus; an advantage of such magnitude, that we may challenge the universe to equal it, and that is, ability to meet death with calmness and joy. Here is a triumph peculiar to the gospel; a triumph far superior to those of kings and conquerors; a triumph over the king of terrors. Looking to Jesus, who has borne the whole of the punishment due to our sins, we are no longer to consider it as penal; this is the sting of death, which He has extracted (2   Timothy 1:10 ). (G. Barrier.)

The necessity of looking to Christ:The reason why the men of the world think so little of Christ is, they do not look

at Him. Their backs being turned to the sun, they can see only their own shadows, and are, therefore, wholly taken up with themselves. While the true disciple, looking only upward, sees nothing but his Saviour, and learns to forget himself. (E. Payson.)The inspiration of a good leader:

News had come from the left that Winter’s Brigade near the river was giving way. Stonewall Jackson rode down to see what it meant. As he passed on the brink of the ravine his eye caught the scene, and reining up in a moment, be said, “Colonel, you seem to have trouble down there.” Then he dashed on. He found that his old brigade had yielded slightly to overwhelming pressure. Galloping up, he was received with a cheer, and calling out at the top of his voice, “The Stonewall Brigade never retreats: follow me! “led them back to their original line. (H. O. Mackey.)Jesus and faith:

“Is your faith strong?” a Christian man was asked a few days before his death. “No, but my Jesus is,” was his reply. Deliverance by looking to Jesus

A lady had a dream, in which she fancied herself at the bottom of a deep pit. She looked round to see if there were any way of getting out; but in vain. Presently, looking upward, she saw in that part of the heavens immediately above the mouth of the pit a beautiful bright star. Steadily gazing at it, she felt herself to be gradually lifted upward. She looked down to ascertain how it was, and immediately found herself at the bottom of the pit. Again her eye caught sight of the star, and again she felt herself ascending. She had reached a considerable height. Still desirous of an explanation of so strange a phenomenon, she turned her eye downward, and fell to the bottom with fearful violence. On recovering from the effect of the shock, she bethought herself as to the meaning of it all, and once again turned her eye to the star, still shining so brightly above, and yet once again felt herself borne upward. Steadily did she keep her eye upon its light, till, at length, she found herself out of the horrible pit, and her feet safely planted on the solid ground above. It taught her the lesson, that, in the hour of danger and trouble, deliverance is to be found, and found only, by looking unto Jesus. (T. Guthrie.)Look to Christ rather that to experiences

“Have you got it?” is a question often asked now. I remember being asked this, and I could not help replying, “I have got Him, and with Him all the its.” God does not give us Christ piecemeal, but wholly. We have a whole Christ, or no Christ. Now, while God does not give us a single blessing apart from Christ, yet in and with Him we have all spiritual blessings. As a matter of fact that is true to every believer, but as matter of experience it is not always so. “I have lost my peace,” groaned a saint one day. We replied, “Have you lost your Saviour?” “Oh, no!” “Well, then, He is our peace.” “I forgot that.” Just so, lose sight of Christ, and away go your feelings; and the way not to get your feelings back is to look for them, the way to get them is not to look for them, but to look to Him. Remember there is in Christ for you a fulness of acceptance, therefore do not doubt Him; there is fulness of peace, therefore trust Him; there is fulness of life, therefore abide in Him; there is fulness of blessing, therefore delight in Him; there is fulness of power, therefore wait upon Him; there is ful-ness of grace, therefore receive from Him; there is fulness of love, therefore be taken up with Him; there is fulness of teaching, therefore learn of Him; there is fulness of joy, therefore rejoice in Him; there is fulness of fulness in Him, therefore be full in Him; there is fulness of riches, therefore count upon Him; there is fulness of strength, therefore

lean upon Him; there is fulness of light, therefore walk with Him; and there is fulness of energy, therefore be subject to Him. (T. E. Marsh.)Looking to Jesus:

The painter who undertakes to copy some masterpiece of art, sits down before it, sketches the outline upon his own canvas, reproduces the colouring of the model, adds item by item to his picture, constantly looking upon the original, noting its qualities and the deficiencies of his work, till, by scrupulous care and untiring endeavour, he has produced a facsimile of the original. The Christian’s work is kindred. He has a better model, even Christ; but a harder task, for his canvas is treacherous and his work is life long. Looking unto Jesus

Two boys were playing in the snow one day, when one said to the other, “Let us see who can make the straightest path in the snow.” His companion readily accepted the proposition, and they started. One boy fixed his eyes on a tree, and walked along without taking them off the object selected. The other boy set his eyes on the tree also, and, when he had gone a short distance, he turned, and looked back to see how true his course was. He went a little distance farther, and again turned to look over his steps. When they arrived at their stopping place, each halted and looked back. One path was true as an arrow, while the other ran in a zigzag course. “How did you get your path so true?” asked the boy who had made the crooked steps. “Why,” said the other boy, “I just set my eyes on the tree, and kept them there until I got to the end; while you stopped and looked back, and wandered out of your course.” Just so is the Christian life. If we fix the eyes of our hope, our trust, and our faith upon Jesus Christ, and keep them continually fastened thereon, we will at last land at the desired haven, with flowers of immortal victory at our feet. (C. W.Bibb.)Jesus the only sight for the dying

The scene opens in a dark and silent chamber. Doctor Franklin is lying on his deathbed. For weeks and weeks he has been prostrate with disease. That active mind, which so long had been occupied with things of earth, was busied now with higher and nobler contemplations. He bids the nurse go down and bring a picture which he named, and fasten it on the wall opposite his bed, that he might look upon it when he pleased. And what think you that picture was? Some ancient historic heirloom, which he dearly prized? Some scene of stirring interest, in which he, the great philosopher of his age, had borne a conspicuous part? No! It was a picture of our blessed Saviour on the Cross; and Doctor Franklin, whom

many, in these evil days, have desired to make an infidel outright, died while gazing upon it with wistful eyes, his whole countenance lighted up with a sweet and placid smile. Poor and pitiable are the hopes of the moralist or the philosopher who does not look to Christ Jesus as his Redeemer.

The Author and Finisher of our faithThe Commander of the faithful:

Consider the remarkable aspects and relationships in reference to our faith in which Christ is here set forth.

I. FIRST WE HAVE HIM AS LEADER AND COMMANDER OF THE GREAT ARMY OF THE FAITHFUL, JESUS, THE AUTHOR OF “OUR FAITH.” Christ is here represented, not so much as one who begins faith in men’s hearts, but as the Leader of all the long procession of those who live by faith. True, the heroes whose names are enrolled in the glorious catalogue of the preceding chapter were before Him in time. But the commander may march in the centre, as well as in the van, and even in order of time; He is the Beginner or Leader, inasmuch as He is the first who ever lived a perfect life of faith. We do not give sufficient prominence in our thoughts of Christ’s earthly life, to this aspect of it--that it was one of faith. He is our pattern in this as in all that belongs to humanity. His life was a life of faith, whose breath was prayer. For faith is dependence upon God, and surely never did human being so utterly hang upon the Father, nor submit himself so absolutely to be moulded and determined by Him, nor yield his will up so completely to that will. Faith is communion, and surely never did a spirit dwell so unbrokenly, in such deep and constant realisation of a Divine presence and a Divine sustaining, as did that Christ who could say “the Father hath not left Me alone, for I do always the things that please Him.” Faith is the vivid realisation of the unseen; and surely never was there a life lived amidst the shows and illusions of time which so manifestly and transparently was all passed in the vivid consciousness of that unseen world, as was the life of that Son of Man, who, in the midst of all earth’s engagements, could call Himself “ the Son of Man which is in heaven.” Faith is a life of assured confidence of an unseen hope, and surely never was there a life which was so entirely dominated by that unseen hope as His life, who, “For the joy that was set,” &c.

II. THERE IS ADDED A VERY SIGNIFICANT EXPRESSION, WHICH LEADS US TO CONSIDER CHRIST NEXT AS BEING SET FORTH HERE AS THE “FINISHER,” OR PERFECTER, “OF FAITH.” It would be a very poor affair if all we had to say to men was: “There is a beautiful example; follow it! “ Copybooks

are all very well, but you want something more than copybooks, A so-called Christianity that has nothing more to say about Jesus Christ than that He is the perfect example of all human excellences, and of faith too, is not the one for a poor man that has found out the plague of his own heart, and the weakness of his own will. He wants something that will come a great deal closer to him than that. And so my text tells us that Jesus is not only “the Leader of faith,” but the “Perfecter” of it too. He will set you the pattern, and then, if you will let Him, He will come into your hearts, and make you able to copy the pattern. He will perfect faith by the implanting in your hearts of His own spirit and His own life. He will lead our faith to sovereign power in our lives, if we will only let Him do it, by another way, too--by the path of discipline and of sorrow; drawing away our hearts from earthly things and fixing them upon Himself; making the world dark that the sky above may be brighter, and revealing Himself to our loneliness as the all-sufficient companion. So He perfects our faith. And He will do it in another way too, by the rewards and blessings which He will give to the imperfect and tentative exercise of our confidence, over-answering our petitions, and flooding us with more than we expected when we tremulously tried to trust on Him; and so inducing us to be bolder in our confidence, and to venture further afield. Thus, He draws us further out into the great sea of His love. And not only so, but in another aspect that dear Lord is the Perfecter of our faith, inasmuch as He gives to our faith at the last that which is its aim and end. A thing is perfected when it either reaches its highest degree, or when it attains its object. And so Christ is the Perfecter of our faith, not only in the sense that He raises and educates it up to its loftiest form, but also that He bestows upon it at the last that which is, as Peter says, its “end,” or perfecting, even the salvation of our souls. And in this aspect we may almost take the word “Perfecter” here to be equivalent to that of the other idea of rewarder. Our faith is perfected when the unseen things are unveiled, when the communion with God is complete, when we shall see Christ as He is, and clasp Him in the close embrace of heaven, and when the crown of life is bestowed which He has promised to them that love Him.

III. THAT LEADS ME TO SAY ONE LAST WORD ABOUT THAT “LOOKING TO JESUS” WHICH IS THE INDISPENSABLE CONDITION OF “RUNNING THE RACE THAT IS SET BEFORE US.” It must be a believing look. It must be a loving look. The occupation of heart and mind with Jesus Christ is the secret of practical Christianity. It is an education to love Him and live with Him. Transformation comes by beholding. The eye that looks upon the light has an

image of the light formed upon its ball, and the man that looks to Christ gets like Christ, and “beauty born of” that gaze “shall pass into his face.” Look to Him as the sustainer of your faith. In your feebleness, when life is low, when hope is almost dead, when temptations are tyrannous and strong, think of Him, and think in trust. Look to Him as your rewarder, and be of good cheer, and let the prospect of that great crown stimulate and sustain and lift you above the ills and the sorrows of life. And last of all, there is an untranslated preposition in one of the words of my text to which, perhaps, it is not straining too much to give emphasis. The full rendering of the expression “looking” is looking away. That points to the need of looking off from something else, that we may look up to Him. It always takes a resolute effort fixedly to contemplate, and to bring heart and mind really into contact with unseen things and unseen persons. And it takes a very strenuous effort to bring the unseen Christ before the mind habitually, and so as to produce effects in the life. You cannot see the stars when you are walking down a town street, and the gas-lamps are lit. All those violet depths and calm abysses and blazing worlds are concealed from you by the glare at your side--sulphurous and stinking. So, my brother, if you want to see into the depths and the heights, to see the great white throne and the Christ on it who helps you to fight, you have to go out unto Him beyond the camp, and leave all its dazzling lights behind you. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

For the joy that was set before HimChrist’s joy in living

I want to speak to you of the joyfulness of Christ Jesus, and of the genius of Christianity as resulting from this fact; and I speak, being conscious of the great misconception which has flowed, for at least a thousand years, down through the Church, and which has clouded the public sentiment of the Christian community to this hour--namely, that Christ was a sufferer through life, and that sorrow is the distinguishing characteristic of the Saviour’s experience; and that although there are gleams of joy in the Christian life, all who enter upon it must enter upon it with a distinct understanding that its characteristic element is sorrowfulness, or cross-bearing. Now, I aver that it happens to no individual in his lifetime to experience so much joy as was compressed into the life of Jesus Christ; and a very slight examination of His history would make it incontrovertible. You will bear in mind that He was born a Hebrew peasant, but that He was of a lineage very noble. In His veins ran the best blood of the Jewish nation. He was a favourite from the beginning; for blood told then in the estimation of men as much as it has ever

done. You will observe that Christ had the ordinary experience which men have, of being a child, and of being loved by His father and mother and His brothers and sisters. He went through all the experiences of babyhood, of early boyhood, of youth, and came into full-orbed manhood without any moral disturbance of which we are aware--without any convulsion that threw Him out of the ordinary experience of a pleasant household, and entered upon His public ministration when He was about twenty-seven years old, dying at about thirty. Now, you will observe that when Christ entered upon His ministry the first step He took in it was toward social joy; for after the temptation in the wilderness He went north and joined His parents, and in Cana of Galilee attended a wedding. The first miracle that He ever performed was to help carry on a three-days’ social entertainment. That does not look much like His being a Man of Sorrows. John, His cousin, came neither eating nor drinking. He disdained amenities. He threw himself like a judgment-bolt into the face of rulers. He cut right and left, without mercy, saying “Peace to the perfect, and woe to the imperfect.” That was his career. Christ began immediately after him. Instead of dwelling in the wilderness, He went into populous cities. Instead of going away from all social intercourse, He participated in the highest festivity known to the ordinary life of a Jew--namely, a wedding service; and afterwards He lived in such social habits that the charge against Him was that He made Himself common with common folks, and that He was a glutton and a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners. No such allegation as that could be made against an ascetic. But setting aside all this, which lies upon the very surface of the text, look at the career of the Saviour in another point of view. So soon as He entered upon His course as a public minister, He showed great aptness in teaching. Concomitant with this experience was another--that which was connected with the performance of His miracles of mercy. Now, is there any joy greater than that which is experienced by one person when he helps another person? He was not a stone man; He was a living soul, as full of sensibility and fire as the heart of God. Consider that He did these things every morning, every noon, and every evening. Consider that there were so many such cases that they could not be registered by name. And do you tell me that in the blessed work of teaching and mercy which He was carrying on, Jesus was not a joyful man? Why, such an idea is false to nature, as it is false to grace. But we have a more decided case yet. We perceive that He was of a nature such that He drew to Him good-livers. He did not disdain luxury: He partook of it. He did not disdain high society: He went into it, just as readily and

familiarly as to the peasant s cottage, or to the abode of the poor and sick. He was a man among men; and if He looked up His look was radiant, while i[ He looked down His look was light-bearing. He could not touch any side of human nature that His soul did not go out in sympathy with it. Now the attractiveness of the Saviour was Such that these men wanted Him, and called for Him. But no man who spreads a good table, and invites folks to dine with him, goes hunting for misanthropes. But that the rich men of His day did want Christ there is irrefutable evidence to prove. This shows that His bearing was sweet and attractive. And wherever He went where people were, He shed joy and happiness upon them. You will now ask, “What about the passion? What about the forty days?” Those are the very days over which the text goes. I think the joy was an awful joy; but I believe that Jesus Christ was never so joyful as during the mighty mystery of those forty days. Let us come to it step by step through experiences such as we have ourselves. When a man does a heroic action at some cost to himself, he knows that though it costs it counts. The highest reaches that any man ever has of joy in this world are those which he has through the ministration of grief and of sorrow. When those persons who went to the stake for their faith, and sang and rejoiced as the fire blazed about them, and sent out from their pulpit of flame joyous songs of hope, do you suppose they were sufferers? There is an ecstasy in a man’s soul at such a time which so affects his nervous system as to lift him above suffering. I do not doubt that there have been crowned hours when that martyr to the liberty of Hungary, Kossuth, though an exile, poor and alone, was not unhappy. I know that sometimes when men are misrepresented, and derided, and scoffed at, and kennels and sewers are opened upon them, there is a serene height into which they rise, where no one can any more touch them with sorrow than the fowler’s shot can touch the eagle that soars just under the sun. And do you suppose the Saviour knew what He suffered when, “for the joy that was set before Him”--the redemption of the world; an eternity of blessedness for the myriads upon myriads that should find life in His outpouring life; and the glory of the Godhead--“He endured the Cross”? Do not you suppose that this joy that He saw in the future made Him a man of joy, and not of sorrow? He “is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” For what? To do what the morning does--pour light over darkness. To do what the dews do--cool the parchedplants after a fervid day when they are well-nigh wilted. He sits there to bring sons and daughters home to glory. Where the father and mother have waited expectant for the dear children that have been long

away to come home, does joy beat upon the instrument of the soul when they do come? and do you suppose that Christ, sitting on the eternal threshold, and seeing sons and daughters coming home to glory through His instrumentality, does not experience joy? He said in the hour of His deepest darkness, “Peace I give you-My peace.” If in the very acme and midnight of His suffering He had so much peace that He could divide it and share it with His disciples, do you not suppose that now, a Prince of Peace, He is also a Prince of Joy? (H. W. Beecher.)The wiliness to the sustaining principle

I. Life is a journey; BUT LIFE IS SOMETHING MORE. Life is a work. It is the great opportunity for the artist who is toiling, by Divine assistance, at the world outside him; because, first, he is toiling at his own Soul. The Man of Sorrows--it is a strange paradox, but it is a fact--the Man of Sorrows supplies us with the sustaining principle, anticipated joy. Joy has a depth and a stillness far beyond mere merriment. Joy has a moral force, because it rises out of and combines real and constituent spiritual elements, loftier, more enduring than pleasure; it draws its life and gathers its strength from the most vigorous and the most varied faculties of our nature. Joy! It co-ordinates and harmonises all rays of moral glory; it has the sweetness and freshness of the music of Mendelssohn; it touches with the chromatic tenderness of Spohr; it unites the depth and splendour of the colouring of Titian, and the refinement and severity of Francia’s Christ. Joy! and the crucifix! Yes, it has its roots, remember, in a rugged soil. Travellers in the Tyrol, so an able writer tells us, noticed in the distance the crest of the mountains cinctured with a girdle of vivid blue. Was it a mirage, a magic deception, worked up by the mist and the light and the winds? Would it pause at the approach of invading footsteps, or would it--as all beautiful things in this low world--would it fade and be gone? They drew on, and found it not fainter, but clearer, not vanished, not gone, no trick of the sunlight, no passing effect of the cloud; it was a belt of vivid gentians, drawing strength from the rugged rock and unsympathising stone, taking the light and outfacing the heavens with the intensity of its burning blue. Now such is the joy of the spirit. Beautiful; not vanishing, but vigorous; anticipating what it knows to be certain, the final victory of truth and righteousness, having, therefore, its roots in “ eternal things.” This, too, this is preached from the Cross; hence, my brothers, what looks like a streak of sunlight on the unrestful ocean becomes a stimulating and sustaining principle in the labour of life.

II. This, then, may become the stimulating principle of a persevering life, and the question is, HOW CAN IT BE LEARNED? The answer is found in the twofold aspect of the Cross.

1. If we catalogue the various departments of the subject-matter of our Redeemer’s joy, we find in the Cross a revelation. It reveals the mystery of the Atonement. But a mystery it is, beautiful, wonderful, bringing life out of death, as spring flowers are the children of the winter, and forming the subject-matter Of our Redeemer’s joy.

2. And the Cross is an example. Speaking morally, it springs directly out of the self-sacrificing temper, gains, in fact, its unselfish colouring there, teaches us what is the temper, the prevailing atmosphere needful for a useful life. We know of no self-denial so personal to ourselves, so complete and lasting, as the self-denial of the Cross; and we read in the joy of the Conqueror not only the principle which stimulates His endeavour, but also the evidence of His love. He had a delight, indeed, not, to use a modern phrase, “in influencing the masses,” but in saving you and me.

3. And another subject-matter of that joy--we dare to say it, because His apostle taught us to do so--was the crowning in Himself of human perfection--the vindication of goodness. Goodness! the greatness of doing what you ought to do; goodness, the greatness of loyalty amid sorrow. This, the highest height of all human excellencies, is crowned on the throne of the Crucified, in the person of “ Him who liveth and was dead.”

III. WHAT THEN, WE ASK, ARE THOSE OPPOSING FORCES WHICH THIS PRINCIPLE IS REQUIRED TO BREAK AND CONQUER?

1. There is a force, fierce as an unfettered animal, wild as the wind, strong as the storm; it springs from the fever and fret of a restless heart needing and finding no satisfaction. Call it taedium vitae; call it ennui; call it a lazy weariness of spirit in the overworked toiler for this world, or in the blasé idler--whatever you call it, it is that mortal sickness of the human spirit, worn out with a life of unsatisfied desire, with the knowledge that riches and pleasure cannot gain for it a salvation or win for it a rest--possessions only of those who hold the hope of a future, itself the first dawning of supernatural joy.

2. We have another force in the pressure of the present. It surely comes to all either in failure of health, or overwork, or bewildering anxiety, or

heartbreaking bereavement, or change of circumstances, or fading of dreams, or parting from others; it is felt in bereavement that has broken you, sorrow that has subdued you, change of circumstances, loss of fortune, forgetfulness of friends, disbelief in you by those whom you believed in, and, what is infinitely worse, disbelief in them when you have found them wanting, and the sad remembrance that you expected too much, and have been accordingly the victim of disappointment not undeserved. It may produce despondency; it may eventuate in a life of miserable murmuring and habitual discontent; or it may be made to yield the “ peaceable fruit of righteousness “ to them who apply the stimulating and sustaining principle.

3. And there is personal and spiritual and accomplished sin. Have you not felt the fierceness of desire, and the difficulty of its domination? Oh, it is when you get to the Crucified you see in the Atonement the way to penitence, the possibility of pardon, the path of peace.

4. And religious perplexity. You are in an age when Christianity is attacked with pitiless severity; you need fear no argument against the truth shaking your faith, though it assail your intellect, if the spiritual conditions are fulfilled; but the strength of your stand on the side of the Crucified is not the strength of your degree at Oxford or Cambridge, it is not the power of your intellect; it rests and will rest on moral grounds. Are you trying to do your duty? Are you living in communion with your Creator? Then you are in the way to keep alive a sustaining principle which will breast the religious difficulty of this great, and, I add it, of this bad time. If, yes, if we are to avoid the curse of Meroz, it is by the hope of a future, and the joy in God that we need to be stimulated, that we need to be sustained in coming “to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”

IV. YES, THE CONDITIONS OF PRESERVING SUCH A PRINCIPLE ARE NOT FAR TO FIND. On the Cross we have our example; in us it is a gift of the Holy Ghost sent by our ascended Master; and it is a fruit of the Spirit in its relation to God; it depends for its energy upon our faithfulness; it is not so much the quiet joy from an accomplished fact as the larger, bracing joy of anticipated victory; and it is preserved bright and sustaining in those who willingly make sacrifices for truth and duty. The sea sets onward through the Straits of Messina with a heaving swell, smooth, yet unflagging, even when the winds are silent and the skies are clear; the Tiber rushes onward, mad and swollen, century after

century, by the Sylvan’s Cave; now like the restful, now like the restless waters, human waves unnumbered of the rising and falling peoples have swept over the hills and plains of Italy, have passed and disappeared; civilisations many, dim or brilliant, across the histories of Greece, of Syria, of the twilight East, have danced into the sunlight and died into the shade; but, in storm or summer stillness Soracte has towered above the dim Campagna and the Sabine Mountains, calm and stately and crowned with snow; and amid all human agonies and the tragedies of the peoples, the giants of the Abarim, folding round them their draperies of purple, have watched the starlight, or wrapped in their robes of roseate brilliance, have reckoned with the dawn. So human passions, troubles, sins, may flow onward in wild current, but principles, supernatural principles, stand firm. (Canon Knox Little.)Joy triumphing

I. THE JOY OF OBEDIENCE. Can we understand this--a joy in doing another’s will, not our own? Yes--and no. As we naturally are we cannot take such a thing in--we want to do what we please--we fret at having any restraint put on us. And yet in proportion as we learn to love God through Jesus Christ, we learn to know what it is to be quite at God’s bidding, and yet to be in perfect freedom.

II. THE JOY OF LOVE. If it be asked, whom He so dearly loved that it was an intense joy to show His love to them, the answer is sinners; for them He came into the world: unlovely objects--lovers of their own will--sheep who had strayed out of a safe fold into a waste howling wilderness; yet in our unloveliness, and wandering, and wilfulness, though He grieved at it, He loved us.

III. THE JOY OF HELP. He knew that His own would not receive Him, yet to feel that His help was open to “ whosoever will”--that He was coming to bring pardon and deliverance and life even to the unthankful--was a joy that outwent the cold manger and the homeless wanderings and the spiteful conspiracies and the bitter Cross--the intense joy of helping the helpless.

IV. THE JOY OF VICTORY. He knew how He should meet the unconquered foe, Death, and by yielding awhile before him, turn and rout him all the more gloriously. He knew that for those sinners whom He so dearly loved, there would henceforth be but a crippled foe to be bruised under their feet shortly; and the chains of bondage struck off, that henceforth we should not be slaves to sin. He foresaw all this, and He heard by anticipation the notes, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates,” and the still more distant ones, “The kingdoms of this world are become

the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,” and He girded Himself for the struggle as already a conqueror. (John Kempthorne, M. A.)The Commander’s conflict and triumph

I. FIRST, THE COMMANDER’S CONFLICT: “Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame.” Now, there are three points about our Lord’s work set forth in thence three clauses, all of them somewhat unlike the ordinary tone in which it is spoken of. We have the motive of His sufferings presented as being an unseen reward for Himself, which He brought vividly before Him by the exercise of His faith. We have His sufferings presented, not in reference to their saving power, but solely as being an illustration of His heroic patient endurance. And we have the contumely and shame of His death presented, not as showing to us His willing self-abasement and His loving lowliness, but as revealing to us the scorn with which He looked upon all hindrances that would bar His path and shake His resolute will.

II. THE COMMANDER’S TRIUMPH, AND OUR SHARE IN IT. “Who is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” That “sitting” expresses rest, as from a finished and perfect work; a rest which is not inactivity; dominion extending over all the universe, and judgment. These three, rest, dominion, judgment, are the prerogatives of the Man Jesus. That is what He won by His bloody passion and sacrifice. And now what has that to do with us? We are to think of this triumph of the Commander as being, first of all, a revelation and a prophecy for us. A revelation and a prophecy. Nobody knows anything about the future life except by means of Jesus Christ. In His exaltation to the throne a new hope dawns on humanity. If we believe that the Man Jesus sits on the throne of the universe, we have a new conception of what is possible for humanity. If a perfect human nature has entered into the participation of the Divine, our natures too may be perfect, and what He is and where He is, there, too, we may hope to come. And, still further, Christ’s triumphal entrance into the heavens is not only prophecy of ours, but it is power to fulfil its own prophecy. He has gone up on high, sitting at the right hand of the throne of God to work for us. His work is not done. He works for us, with us, and in us, as Lord of providence and King of grace, sustaining and upholding us in all our weakness, and tending the smoky flame of our dim faith till it bursts into clear radiance. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)The joy of Jesus:

Everything exists for an end--has its place in God’s wide world, and is intended to answer some purpose, to accomplish some end. Every rational being has an

object “set before” it. The creatures that are not rational live and exist for an end, but the end is not “ set before” them. The end is ever before their Creator, and Master, and Ruler; but the end is not set before them. They have not eyes to see it; they have no powers, or faculties with which to pursue it; but every rational being has an object “ set before “ it. And it is important for us very often to ask, for what end were we made? and for what end have we been redeemed? In a state of prior existence our Redeemer had, as it respects this world, an object before Him, and that object He came, as you know, into this world to pursue. In the words before us is one view of the goal to which our Saviour ran, or of the prize for which His course was pursued. It is called “the joy”--that is, the cause and the occasion of the joy, “who, for the joy that was set before Him.”

I. Let us ask, WHAT IS THIS JOY--the joy that was set before Jesus Christ? God speaks of this in the whispers of prophecy; and according to prophecy the joy set before Jesus was the joy of bruising the serpent’s head; it was the joy of gathering together a scattered people; it was the joy of imparting knowledge to the ignorant upon the highest subjects; it was the joy of forming a perfect and everlasting kingdom out of lifeless and rebel souls. God exhibits it, too, in the pictures of the Levitical dispensation. It is the joy of pardoning the guilty, and of purifying the unclean; it is the joy of elevating those who have been cast down and downtrodden; it is the joy of educating those whose nature has been bruised and crushed. Jesus, too, Himself speaks of it. He speaks of it in parable. He likens it to the joy of a shepherd when having sought the lost sheep he has found it; and to the joy of a woman, who having missed treasure discovers it again; and to the joy of the father of a prodigal who is permitted to receive that prodigal in true penitence back again to his heart and to his home.

1. It was the blessedness of redeemed men. And what is their joy? It is the joy of coming out of darkness into light; it is the joy of passing from death, and from a death of which they are conscious, into life; it is the joy of coming out of wretched ignorance into sure and certain knowledge; it is the joy of rising from a state of distrust into a condition of confidence and faith; it is the joy of being converted from enmity, and alienation, and indifference towards God, into filial love.

2. The joy which redeemed men may diffuse, as well as the joy which they inherit. “Ye are the salt of the earth,” said Christ, and “Ye are the light of the world.” God alone can tell the blessedness which one redeemed man

may be the means of communicating into others. How many tears may the hand of a true Christian wipe away?

3. The joy which the redemption of every sinner gives to the unfallen creation of God.

4. The joy of Jesus was the joy of God Himself in the salvation of the lost. 5. The joy set before Jesus was the joy which must be awakened in Jesus as

the means of diffusing and spreading so much blessedness. “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” His joy was the joy too of being recognised as the great Joy Giver to a number of men which no man can number; and the joy of working out, even to its consummation, the greatest and most glorious work of Jehovah.

II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JOY OF JESUS. It is the joy of love--not the joy of the miser; not the joy of the spendthrift; not the joy of the lover of sinful pleasure; not the joy of the unlawfully ambitious--it is the joy of the benefactor, it is the joy of the mother; and while it is the joy of love, it is the joy of that extraordinary variety of love which inspired men call grace--the strongest form, the most beauteous form, the divinest form. It is the joy of holiness, too, and of perfect goodness.

III. Let me remind you THAT SUCH BLESSEDNESS IS WON FOR YOU. The foundation of joy Jesus has laid; will you build upon it? or will you neglect the foundation? Will you neglect to build upon the foundation which this Jesus has laid for you? If you thus neglect to build, see, you are reflecting upon Him. You are bringing clouds upon His wisdom, His love, on His power. Or you are reflecting upon the foundation? You treat the foundation as though it were either unnecessary, or as though it were not worthy of your building upon it. What blessedness may be enjoyed by you and what blessedness may be spread by you! You can spread Divine joy--will you? Will you make the joy of others your goal? Archbishop Leighton has said somewhere, “It is a strange folly in multitudes of us to set ourselves no mark, to propound no end in the hearing of the gospel. The merchant sails, not merely that he may sail, but for traffic; and he traffics, not simply for traffic, but that he may be rich. The husbandman ploughs, not merely to keep himself busy, and with no further end, but ploughs that he may sow; and he sows, not for sowing sake, but sows that he may reap, and reap with advantage. And shall we do the most excellent and fruitful work fruitlessly--hear only to hear, and look no further? This is indeed a great vanity and a great misery, to lose the labour and gain nothing by that which duly used

would be of all others most advantageous and gainful; and yet,” he says, “all meetings for religious purposes are full of this.” Well, now, we have heard in a few brief words a little of the joy which Christ set before Himself--and I ask, have we all a mark? Have we an end? Is my life and yours a race with a goal, and a prize and a judge, and a cloud of witnesses? Is it so? Is there a joy set before us? If there be a joy set before us, who has set it before us? And what is it? If your joy be Christ’s joy, and you make it your goal, and your prize, and if you run your race with patience, the day will soon come when you shall find yourselves not worn and weary on the course, but sweetly resting at the goal; and the day, too, will come when your feeble hands shall grasp the prize--your hands stretched out by the impulse of a heart filled with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. (S. Martin.)Christ’s prospective joy:

Just as the sculptor, before he begins to chip the marble into shape, sees with his mind’s eye the figure which is first conceived by his genius and then fashioned by his skill--so with our Divine Redeemer. He from eternity, before man was created, beheld him coming into being, placed on his own footing, falling, redeemed, saved. And, as the result of His atoning work, there rises up, through His Spirit, the fulfilment of His own ideal, a new creation, a living Church. (C. Clemance. D. D.)Christ’s joy varied as the relationship He sustains to men

May we not safely say that the joy will be as varied as the relationship which our Saviour bears to us? It will be the joy of the Sufferer whose agony is forgotten in the abundance of bliss--the joy of the Sower in reaping the abundance of the harvest--the joy of the Shepherd in seeing all the sheep as one flock, safe for ever in the heavenly fold--the joy of the Friend in seeing all His friends by His side in a union with Him and with each other that no misapprehension shall ever mar, and no sin shall ever stain--it will be the joy of the Warrior when the battle is over, when every enemy is still as a stone, and the summons to fight is exchanged for victorious rest--it will be the joy of the Leader, who has brought all His host into the promised land--it will be the joy of the Mediator, who has discharged His trust and surrendered it to the Father, saying “Of those whom Thou hast given Me I have lost none”--it will be the joy of the King who is to reign for ever over a kingdom in which revolt has been made impossible through the achievements of almighty grace--it will be the joy of the Redeemer when the redemption is complete, fulfilling His longings and His

prayers--it will be the joy of the Firstborn Son at seeing every member of the new-born family safe in a happy home, which no sin can disturb and no death invade--it will be the joy of the Son of Man in witnessing the ideal of human perfection--it will be the joy of the Son of God, as to principalities and powers in heavenly places He reveals through a glorified Church the manifold wisdom of God, showing to worlds on worlds what infinite love devised and Infinite Power achieved! (C. Clemance. D. D.)

Endured the CrossThe Cross carried, and the shame despised by Jesus

I. WHAT WAS THE CROSS WHICH JESUS CHRIST ENDURED? Was not the whole life of Jesus cross-bearing from the beginning to the end? But there were three things which may emphatically be called the Cross of Christ.

1. His being made sin for us. God did not make Jesus sinful; but God treated Jesus Christ as though He were a sinner. Herein was a Cross.

2. Jesus was wounded by God for transgression, and bruised for iniquity. 3. Jesus Christ’s dying as a notorious malefactor, and thus dying for the

ungodly was another part of His Cross. II. WHAT WAS THE SHAME WHICH HE DESPISED? This was disgrace,

reproach, with the passions and emotions which they are supposed to awaken, and which in all purity and power they did awaken in the human nature of your Saviour.

III. BUT WHAT WAS THE MANNER AND SPIRIT OF HIS ENDURANCE AND OF HIS CONTEMPT? For this chiefly is the point. Observe, He endured the Cross. He felt the Cross to be a Cross. He felt it as a man. Do not overlook the complete humanity of your Redeemer. He felt His Cross more than we could have felt it could we have carried it. Sinfulness blunts the susceptibilities of our nature: purity and holiness keep the pores of the spirit open. This was the case with Christ. He endured the Cross in its full weight. He looked at the Cross as it was presented to Him, and He lifted it, and sustained on His own shoulder its full weight; and I would say to you if you want to get any good out of cross-bearing, always let the full weight of it come upon your shoulder. I do not say let the full weight of it come upon your shoulder, you being unstrengthened by the Almighty power; but I say, use no artifice to escape the pressure of any trouble that God sends you. When God sends a trouble to you, let it come down upon you as He sends it, and employ no artifices to reduce its pressure. Jesus endured the Cross in its full weight, and he endured the Cross to the very end. He took it up, and to

the close of life He carried it; but He endured it courageously, patiently, cheerfully, and effectually. “Despising the shame.” Jesus felt the shame. Did His cheek never redden, think you, or His lip never quiver when reviled? Was there no blush upon His cheek when men called Him a Sabbath-breaker, and a blasphemer, and said that He cast out devils by the prince of devils? Often, doubtless, did that cheek redden and that lip quiver, tie felt the shame: and, mark, to despise being despised is about the hardest thing in life. Why do you find some sincere Christians continuing in certain ecclesiastical connections into which their convictions would never lead them, and in which their convictions do not keep them? Because they cannot despise being despised. You may account for the anomalous position of hundreds of Christ’s disciples by this very circumstance--they have not learned, even from the Great Teacher of this hard lesson, to despise the shame; they have not learned to despise being despised. The shame was never seen to hinder Christ from saying a true word, or from doing a right thing. Now all this is the more remarkable because of three circumstances. First, Christ’s clear foresight of the Cross and of the shame. He saw both before Him, yet He yielded Himself to endure them. Secondly, His full appreciation of the Cross and the shame. And, thirdly, His deep and quick sensitiveness towards all cross-bearing and towards all shame. Now, bearing these things in mind, Christ’s enduring the Cross and despising the shame becomes exceedingly wonderful as they appear in our Saviour’s life. Having expounded the text, let us use the truths it contains for practical purposes. Observe, then, that this text exhibits something done in which you may find rest and peace. Jesus has endured the Cross; Jesus has despised the shame. Your cross which you could not endure He has endured; the shame which you never could have borne, and which would have overwhelmed you, He so bore as to despise it. And He asks you to believe this, and to act accordingly. He would not have you go about carrying the cross, say, of your own guilt. You are not to carry that cross. You have your cross to carry, but this is not yours. But, further, the text suggests that there is something yet to be done--a very different thing from the something done; but still there is something to be done. Every man is called to carry a cross, but not every man the same cross; nor is every shoulder equally sensitive or equally strong. Troubles vary, and the pressure of the same troubles is different upon different individuals-and you know why. The reason is to be found in temperament, in disposition, in the state of the body, in the condition of the spirit, in the character, in the pursuits, and in the circumstances of a man. But

we all have our cross and our shame; and I have now to ask you, do we endure the cross? Do we despise the shame? (S. Martin.)The Saviour’s endurance and joy:

There are two ways in which the history of Bible saints ought to stimulate our faith and courage. This purpose they serve when presented to our minds as examples. They prove that the truths which the Bible teaches are not airy fancies or musty theories, which cannot be reduced into practice, and shrink from the fiery tests of every-day life. The force of example is a thought which long ago has been coined into a proverb. The ancient Romans were accustomed to place the busts of famous ancestors in the vestibules of their houses, in order to remind young people, as they passed to and fro, of the noble deeds of those ancestors, and fire them with the laudable ambition to excel in wisdom, goodness, and valour. The life of a hero has been known to colour the spirit of an age. The life of Napoleon Buonaparte has kindled the love of military glory in many a youthful heart; the touching story of Howard’s labours has moved many a man to deeds of charity and kindness.

I. CONSIDER THE SEVERE ORDEAL, THROUGH WHICH HE PASSED. The atoning sorrows of Christ came from several sources or directions.

1. Strange as it may appear, much of the pain and grief came from human malice and opposition. I say strange, for one would have concluded that all the sympathy and help of men would most certainly be enlisted on His side, as soon as they were told that to save their souls was His gracious object.

2. Another element in the sufferings of Jesus was the malicious opposition of the devil and his angels. As a Divine Being, of course these rebellious creatures were subject to His power and could do Him no harm. But in condescending to assume human nature, and undertaking to work out the plan of salvation, Christ voluntarily exposed Himself to the power of these malignant spirits.

3. But the chief source of the Redeemer’s suffering was the wrath of His Father. As the fire which consumed the sacrifices laid upon Jewish altars came down from heaven, so the holy fire that consumed the sacrifice offered upon the altar of Calvary descended from God the Father. But although the Father’s wrath was not vindictive in its nature, and rested not on personal but public grounds, it pressed with fearful weight upon the Saviour. With the smile of His Father shining into His soul, and lighting up

therein an abiding summer, Christ could have braved any trial to which He might be summoned without a moan or murmur. But why those shrinkings in Gethsemane from the task that was assigned Him? “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” That cup contained ingredients so bitter that none but God could have compounded them.

II. CONSIDER, AGAIN, THE SPIRIT HE DISPLAYED. It is true He did not covet suffering. He made no virtue of endurance. His courage was apparent through the whole course of His public life, but not with such a splendour of manifestation as in His dying hour. Some plants when pressed display more of their colours, and diffuse more of their fragrance. The diamond when broken into splinters glitters all the more; and despite the dishonours that gather so thickly around the Cross of Emmanuel, the lustre of His courage burst through the gloom, and shone with unwonted power. And if you seek the highest pattern of serene patience and fortitude, it is to the sufferer that hangs on the Cross of Calvary we point you.

III. CONSIDER, AGAIN, THE MOTIVE WHICH SUSTAINED HIM. “Who for the joy that was set before Him.” (J. H. Morgan)

Despising the shameThe shameful Sufferer

I. THE SHAMEFUL SUFFERER. The text speaks of shame, and therefore before entering upon suffering, I shall endeavour to say a word or two upon the shame. Perhaps there is nothing which men so much abhor as shame. We find that death itself has often been preferable in the minds of men to shame; and even the most wicked and callous-hearted have dreaded the shame and contempt of their fellow-creatures far more than any tortures to which they could have been exposed. It is well known that criminals and malefactors have often had a greater fear of public contempt than of aught else. In the Saviour’s case, shame would be peculiarly shameful; the nobler a man’s nature, the more readily does he perceive the slightest contempt, and the more acutely does he feel it. The eye that hath faced the sun cannot endure darkness without a tear. But Christ who was more than noble, matchlessly noble, something more than of a royal race, for Him to be shamed and mocked must have been dreadful indeed.

Besides, some minds are of such a delicate and sensitive disposition that they feel things far more than others. He loved with all His soul; His strong passionate heart was fixed upon the welfare of the human race; and to be mocked by those for whom He died, to be spit upon by the creatures whom He came to save, to

come unto His own, and to find that His own received Him not, but actually cast Him out, this was pain indeed.

1. And behold the Saviour’s shame in His shameful accusation. He in whom was no sin, and who had done no ill, was charged with sin of the blackest kind. He was first arraigned before the Sanhedrim on no less a charge than that of blasphemy. Could He blaspheme? No. And it is just because it was so contrary to His character that He felt the accusation. Nor did this content them. Having charged Him with breaking the first table, they then charged Him with violating the second: they said He was guilty of sedition; they declared that He was a traitor to the government of Caesar, that He stirred up the people, declaring that He Himself was a king. What would you think, good citizens and good Christians, if you were charged with such a crime as this? Ah! but your Master had to endure this as well as the other. He despised the shameful indictments, and was numbered with the transgressors.

2. Christ not only endured shameful accusation, but He endured shameful mocking. When Christ was taken away to Herod, Herod set Him at nought. The original word signifies “made nothing” of Him. It is an amazing thing to find that man should make nothing of the Son of God, who is all in all.

3. He endured a shameful death. But this is the death of a villain, of a murderer, of an assassin--a death painfully protracted, one which cannot be equalled in all inventions of human cruelty for suffering and ignominy. Christ Himself endured this. Remember, too, that in the Saviour’s case there were special aggravations of this shame. He had to carry His own Cross; He was crucified, too, at the common place of execution, Calvary, analogous to our ancient Tyburn, or our present Old Bailey. He was put to death, too, at a time when Jerusalem was full of people. It was at the feast of the passover, when the crowd had greatly increased, and when the representatives of all nations would be present to behold the spectacle. Was ever shame like this?

II. His GLORIOUS MOTIVE. What was that which made Jesus speak like this?--“For the joy that was set before Him.”

III. I WILL TRY AND HOLD THE SAVIOUR UP FOR OUR IMITATION. Christian men! if Christ endured all this merely for the joy of saving you, will you be ashamed of bearing anything for Christ? Are there any of you who feel that if you follow Christ you must lose by it--lose your station, or lose your reputation?

Will you be laughed at if you leave the world and follow Jesus? Oh! and will you turn aside because of these little things, when He would not turn aside, though all the world mocked Him, till He could say, “It is finished.” (C. H. Surgeon.)Despise the shame!

Learn the practical wisdom of minimising the hindrances to your Christian career, pulling them down to their true smallness. Do not let them come to you and impose upon you with the notion that they are big and formidable. The most of them are only white sheets, and a rustic boor behind them, like a vulgar ghost. You go up to them and they will be small immediately! “Despise the shame! and it disappears.” And how is that to be done? In two ways. Go up the mountain, and the things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more insignificant they will seem. Hold fellowship with God, and live up beside your Master, and the threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable. Another way is--pull up the curtain, and gaze on what is behind it. The low foot-hills that lie at the base of some Alpine country may look high when seen from the plain, as long as the snowy summits are wrapped in mist, but when a little puff of wind comes and clears away the fog from the lofty peaks, nobody looks at the little green hills in front. So the world’s hindrances, and the world’s difficulties and cares, they look very lofty till the cloud lifts. And when we see the great white summits, everything lower does not seem so very high after all. Look to Jesus, and that will dwarf the difficulties. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Is set down on the right handJesus enthroned

I. Let us look at the fact here presented to us--or at THE POSITION ASSIGNED TO JESUS CHRIST. He is said to be seated “at the right hand of the throne of God.” A place at the right hand of any person in authority and power is employed by the Sacred Writers to represent a position of high honour. It may be that you have a tendency to look chiefly to the Cross of Christ. Yon may be yourselves the children of sorrow, and often in affliction. Your own cross may be exceedingly heavy; it may tremendously oppress you; and your temperament and your natural disposition combining with your circumstances may lead you to look chiefly at the Cross of Christ. Believe that your Lord died and was buried; but do not keep your eyes fixed on the Cross and on the sepulchre, for He is not now on that Cross; He is not now in that sepulchre. And you in your thoughts of Christ, and in your feelings about Christ, are not to be merely crucified with Him, and dead with Him, but you must be risen with Christ, your affections being fixed

on Christ as above. He dwells in the midst of the highest manifestations of Deity. He is worshipped in heaven with God--as God. His name is associated as no other name with that of Jehovah.He has Divine authority; and He has also Almighty power. Although distinct from Jehovah, He is and He appears to be one with Jehovah--one as an object of reverence, of fear, and of love--one in His administration of universal government. Thus is He seated “at the right hand of the throne of God.”

II. NOW SEE THE USE WHICH WE CHRISTIANS ARE TO MAKE OF THE KNOWLEDGE THAT JESUS IS IN THIS POSITION.

1. Here is a fountain of joy from which Christians may drink sacred pleasure. Jesus is set down at the right hand of the throne of God--then His work of atonement is finished; then His sacrifice is accepted; then His humiliation is terminated; then His sorrows are for ever fled away. We joy in this for His own sake. The Cross of Christ was a real cross to Him. When He is said to suffer, He did suffer. His soul was really troubled, and His spirit was exceedingly sorrowful. And now that He wears a crown, He feels to wear a Crown. But we may joy in this also for the Church’s sake--for just as Jesus carried the Cross to bless the Church, so does He wearthe crown to bless the Church. And we may joy in the coronation of Jesus for the sake of our individual well-being. We who trust our Saviour have a personal connection with His Cross; and we have a personal connection with His crown. And further, we may joy in this fact for the world’s sake. He has ascended on high and received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell among them.

2. But here, too, is a motive to patience, and much help in cherishing patience. The course of the disciple is in some respects parallel with that of the Master. Like Christ’s, it is a fixed and definite course. And it is a course in which there are many hindrances to be laid aside and sorrows to be borne. But it is a course to which there is an appointed goal, and a course in which the goal as a rule may be seen. It is a course, further, which makes large demands upon patience. Hence the injunction “ to run with patience the race which is set before us.” But now, just see how the position of Jesus bears upon the cultivation of patience. Jesus is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Once He was running His race on this earth: now He is “set down.” Now He has no need of patience--He is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. And if you run, if you wait, if

you be patient, you will one day sit down with Him on His throne, even as He is seated on His Father’s throne.

3. And there is just one other thought which we would suggest to you. No forerunners helped Jesus--not one. He had not a being to look to who had run in any respect a similar course, and reached His goal--not one. There was the Father above Him, but the Father had not become man. He had not been a man of sorrows. There we angels ministering to Him, but no angels in the skies had attempted to do what Jesus had come to do. (S. Martin.)

Verse 3Hebrews 12:3

Consider Him that endured such contradictionChrist’s afflictions a lesson for His people:

All heaven considers or looks at Christ.The angels look at Him with reverence and adoring wonder, as their Lord and King. All hell considers or looks at Christ. The devils look at Him with terror and alarm, as their Judge and the Author of their punishment. But neither heaven nor hell can get such precious views of Christ as can those whom Christ came to redeem. They consider Him as the Lawgiver who shows the path of duty, as the Redeemer who shows the way of life. They consider Him as the Physician who heals their spiritual diseases, as the Pattern after which they are themselves to copy. They consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners, in order that they may be not wearied, nor faint in their minds. The flowers that bloom upon a thousand hills, in more than royal stateliness, are rich in fragrant moisture; but it is not every gaudy insect that can extract the honey they yield. So, Christ, however rich and precious He be to those who know Him, is rich and precious to them alone. The ungodly get nothing by their contemplation of Him, except, indeed, a greater aversion ever to contemplate Him again. Believers are always benefited by this exercise. They are made better, wiser, holier, happier, by it. Looking unto Jesus is the attitude of spiritual health, the posture of spiritual activity, the habit of spiritual enjoyment: it is a blessed exercise--it strengthens the soul, it animates the heart, it enlivens the whole frame of the inner man. And while it is beneficial to all who engage heartily in it, be their circumstances what they may, it is peculiarly beneficial to all those who are in distress or perplexity.

The contemplation of Him who suffered the contradiction of sinners hinders the mind from becoming weary and faint.

I. LOOK AT THE PICTURE WHICH THE APOSTLE HERE EXHIBITS. It is the picture of Him who endured such contradiction of sinners. It is the picture of a mighty Being, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It represents Him, however, as man. It represents Him as suffering contradiction, that is, animosity, hatred, and persecution. It represents Him as suffering all this from sinners. It represents the suffering as being in every respect intense, aggravated, and indescribable. Let us seek to fill our minds with a sense of what He underwent.

1. The sufferings of Christ were Divinely appointed and tremendously severe. They were not the mere natural evils which are shed upon us, all in consequence of Adam’s disobedience. They were singular, peculiar, and transcendental. They had no like, no parallel. They were infinite sufferings.

2. The subject of Christ’s suffering is deserving of consideration because, had He chosen, He could have avoided them. But He did not so choose. He did not spare Himself. He gave Himself up to death for us all.

3. Again, in estimating the contradiction of sinners endured by Christ, let us remember that He was, through out the whole of it, actuated by disinterested motives.

4. Once more, Jesus did not deserve the punishment that was inflicted upon Him.

5. Lastly, the nature of Christ’s endurance will be still more strikingly manifested when it is recollected that it was borne for the sake of those who inflicted it.

II. Let us now speak of THE LESSONS CONVEYED BY THE PICTURE on which we have been meditating.

1. By looking to the afflictions of Christ we derive materials for encouragement, because we could not of ourselves do what Christ has done for us. We may endure contradiction of sinners, as Christ Himself did; but ours will never be such contradiction as His.

2. Again, by looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because we should not expect to be treated better than He Himself was.

3. By looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because, as our great Model and Exemplar, He has

exhibited to us a specimen of patient endurance and submission under the most dreadful inflictions.

4. By looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because we find that, as our great High Priest and Redeemer, He is able to sympathise with us in all our afflictions.

5. Lastly, by looking to the tribulations of Christ we derive materials of encouragement, because, as He triumphed over all His enemies, so shall we if we be partakers of His salvation. Christians are one with their Redeemer. (Alex. Nisbet.)

The endurance of ChristThe contemplation of Christ’s sufferings may, or may not, be spiritually

beneficial to us. It is possible to occupy our attention with the physical side of the Passion to the exclusion of the moral and spiritual, and to think almost exclusively of the sufferings and scarcely at all of the Sufferer. Such contemplation may work upon our feelings much in the same way as thrilling incidents in a powerful work of fiction, and create a spurious sympathy with the Sufferer which cannot produce the effect which the passion of our Lord ought to have upon our lives. The remedy is to be found mainly in “considering Him that endured”--in keeping before us the personality of the Sufferer. But we shall only rightly consider the Sufferer Himself when we keep in mind the purpose He had in His endurance. He suffers for sinners, as well as from sinners; and He suffers for the direct purpose of removing the contradiction which He endures--to take away sins. And all profitable contemplation of the sufferings of Christ ought to have in it the desire and willingness to have its purpose fulfilled in us. In considering Him we must keep in mind His faultlessness; the entire absence of any justification for the contradiction. He was not only faultless, but good. Although graced with the perfect qualities of human virtue, and rich in the beneficent works of goodness, He endured the contradiction of sinners. Remember, too, that within, and perfectly conjoined to, that holy humanity, was all the fulness of God. In every act of endurance there is the manhood which endures as human, and there is the deeper endurance of God underlying it all. The word “contradiction” is here used to include the whole of the opposition which our Lord experienced from sinners. The Cross was only the climax of a long and varied course of antagonism out of which it sprung, without which it would not have been reached, and by which alone it can be understood and duly estimated. The first contradiction Christ endured was in the unbelief which met

Him. He was the True One and the Truth; but they affirmed Him either deceived or a deceiver--utterly untrustworthy. But this contradiction advanced to open condemnation. He was said to be “a gluttonous man,” &c. They said His power over evil spirits was due to a league between Himself and the prince of the devils. They charged Him with being the enemy of God and man, a blasphemer and an evildoer. Remember who it was against whom all these false and bitter things were spoken. Consider Him, and see His brave endurance. And there was an element in all this contradiction which added to its painfulness. It was not the result, in general, of a mistake, which could be excused by the Sufferer. It had its root in personal hate (John 15:24). And He knew the cause ofthat hate. It came out of a conscious moral antipathy. His pure, holy, humble, unselfish life made them conscious of the unreality and hollowness of their assumed excellence. And He endured this hate--He who combined in His own person all that is gracious in God and lovable in man. This antagonism and hate could not fail to proceed to acts of violence if occasion should arise. “They took up stones to stone Him”; and, think you, was it not as if He felt the blows of hardness of heart hurled at Him as He preserved Himself from this attempt upon His life? To Christ the spiritual was not less real than the physical; and in every infliction of suffering and wrong upon Him by the hands of wicked men He felt the spirit of the acts--the sin of the world--going right down deep into His soul. Yes, thepainful pressure of the crown of thorns, the piercing of nails and the anguish of the body, were means through which He bore in Himself the contradiction of sinners and of sin. One point more: This endurance of the contradiction of sinners was out of consideration to them. He might have saved Himself, and have made them to feel His contradiction against themselves. But He suffered Himself, instead of making them to suffer. His consideration for them was grounded in love--love to them and to us. In love He endured seeing them the opposite of that which He could love; endured receiving from them the reverse of what He had a right to expect, the opposite of that which His coming had made possible. If He could have hated and despised those who contradicted Him, it would have been less painful to His spirit to endure the contradiction. But the more He loved us, the more bitter became every experience, the more pointed and painful every act of wrong. “Consider Him who endured,” etc., and consider Him, with this fact in mind, that in thus enduring He was exhibiting and putting forth His gracious power to save us from sinning against Him. The purpose of His Cross is to

reconcile us and all things to Himself; to bring us to harmony of mind and life with Him; to destroy our contradiction by enduring it. (R. Vaughan, M. A.)The great source of courage:

“Consider Him.” Learn to look up. It is an exercise in which we have to be trained and drilled until we have mastered it. Unbelief gives a man a crick in the neck so that he cannot look up. But faith, like the eagle, sets her eyes on the sun and soars away until earth is lost in the mists below, and she lights on the highest mount of God. If we would have a life of singing and triumphant courage, we must get into this habit--the heavenly habit of considering Jesus. “Consider Him.” This is everything. In the Christian life Christ Himself is the Source and Strength of all. A man is a Christian exactly as he receives Christ into his thought, and heart, and life. And this is the order, through the thought into the heart and thence into the life. Therefore consider Christ--gather the thoughts in from other things, and set them upon Christ. In everything that we would get hold of thoroughly we must give our minds to it, as we say. And this means give your mind to Christ. Christ is to us what we will let Him be. If I will let Him into my life, He will fill it with light and blessedness, as the sun fills the heavens. “Consider Him”--not the truth about Him. Lectures on botany are poor things to put in place of flowers. Sermons and teachings about Christ are poor things indeed to put in place of Him. It is more than ever needful in times like these, when life is such a rush and whirl, that we make room and leisure in our lives to cultivate this art of considering Christ. Alas! what hurried and passing glimpses of out” great Master do content us! There is a bit of the country--than which, I think, there is nothing more lovely in all England--that I have often passed through in the railway carriage; eagerly I have looked out of the window, over the deep valleys, woods overhanging woods, going down to misty depths, and away to the moorland, stretching up to the rugged heights; then suddenly a bank of earth has blotted it all out; a narrow cutting has hemmed us in--and then the tunnel darkness. Out again and across some viaduct; looking down on the clear stream amidst the boulders below, another glance of the hills, and then a new obstruction. And some people call that “ seeing the country.” How much can one consider it amid such vexatious glimpses? But some fine day I have left the railway station and stepped out on to the moor, and in a few moments have stood amidst its stillness, the great unbroken stretch of earth and sky, the music of some little brook and the plover’s call not breaking the silence, only heightening it. Then I have gone up on to the granite height, and there under the blue heaven I have

looked away, away on every side, over the miles of country, catching here and there the faint, silvery line of the sea. Then and then only I saw it--thus I could consider it. We must get away alone up into the mount of the Lord if we would consider Him. The busier you are the more you need it: this thinking about Him until He comes to reveal Himself. With many bow would half an hour of such considering transform the life I He, my Lord and Captain, my Friend and Helper, my Deliverer and my God. (M. G. Pearse.)Suffering and glory:

No pain, no palm; no thorn, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. (Wm. Penn.)Consider Him:

Our troubles are but as the slivers and chips of His Cross. (J. Trapp.)Christ with us in trial:

One thing which contributed to make Caesar’s soldiers invincible was their seeing him always take his share in danger, and never desire any exemption from labour and fatigue. We have a far higher incentive in the war for truth and goodness when we consider Him wire endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Considering Christ in persecution

Li Cha Mi, a Chinese preacher, was nearly killed by robbers during the excitement against foreigners, in 1872. At a subsequent conference, he said; “You have all heard of my sufferings during the past few months. I wish to say that these sufferings were very slight. It was easy to endure pain when I could feel that I bore it for Christ. It is wonderful--I cannot explain it. When attacked by the robbers, and beaten almost to death, I felt no pain. Their blows did not seem to hurt me at all. Everything was bright and glorious. Heaven seemed to open, and I thought I saw Jesus waiting to receive me. It was beautiful. I have no words to describe it. Since that time I seem to be a new man. I now know what it is to ‘love not the world.’ My affections are set on things above. Persecutions trouble me not. I forget all my sorrows when I think of Jesus.

I call nothing on earth my own. I find that times of trial are best for me. When all is quiet and prosperous, I grow careless and yield to temptation, but when persecutions come, then I fly to Christ. The fiercer the trial, the better it is for my soul.” (The Christian.)

Lest ye be weariedSpiritual weariness

I. THERE IS A CONFLICT WHICH STILL DEMANDS OUR FAITH AND PATIENCE, The great purpose of life should be to attain the highest excellent of which our nature is susceptible. This involves difficulties.

II. WE ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING HEART, AND GROWING WEARY IN THIS CONFLICT. Perhaps we may hardly wonder at this, if we think of the nature of the conflict itself, its continuousness, its unintermittent character. This result ensues, too, from the providential trials under which we are sometimes called to carry on the conflict. This danger also arises from the perpetual vigilance and resistance which are required to be exercised against custom, against kindness, against the slumbrous atmosphere in which we live.

III. THIS WEARINESS AND FAILURE OF SPIRITUAL DETERMINATION IS AN EVIL WHICH OUGHT TO BE STRENUOUSLY RESISTED. Weariness and exhaustion are fatal to real enjoyment. They are equally fatal to work. When worn down by fatigue, you have neither strength nor spirit for work. Moreover, there must be much danger in this state of weariness and exhaustion.

IV. THE REST MEANS OF AVOIDING THIS WEARINESS AND SPIRITUAL EXHAUSTION IS STEADILY TO CONTEMPLATE JESUS. Look upon Him in such a way as to call out comparison with),ourselves, and it will encourage you, and enable you to rise above this exhaustion and fear.

1. The greatness and nobleness of the Sufferer! 2. Consider the poignancy and the severity of His suffering. 3. Consider the innocency of the Sufferer. 4. Consider the spirit in which Jesus suffered. (J. C. Harrison.)

Discouragements in the Christian lifeI. MANY PERSONS ARE DISCOURAGED AT THE GREAT DIFFERENCE

WHICH THEY EXPERIENCE IN THEIR FEELINGS, WHEN THEY RECEIVE INSTRUCTION FROM THE MINISTRATION OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MINDS, AND WHEN THEY ARE OBLIGED TO FURNISH THEMSELVES WITH THE TRUTH WHICH IS REQUIRED FOR THEIR DAILY CHRISTIAN LIFE.

II. MANY ARE LIABLE TO BECOME WEARIED AND FAINT FROM POSITIVE REACTION, FROM DEPRESSION ARISING FROM EXHAUSTION.

III. PERSONS OF A TIMID NATURE, WHOSE RELIGIOUS LIFE HAS, EITHER BY EDUCATION OR FROM SOMETHING IN THEMSELVES, TURNED UPON CONSCIENCE, OR IN WHOM THEIR RELIGIOUS LIFE IS OF THE TYPE OF CONSCIENCE RATHER THAN OF LOVE, OR TRUST, OR HOPE, ARE PECULIARLY LIABLE TO DISCOURAGEMENT AND WEARINESS.

IV. GREAT DISCOURAGEMENT BEFALLS MEN WHO HAVE A RELIGION WITHOUT ANY SOCIAL ELEMENT TO CORROBORATE IT.

V. MANY PERSONS ARE BROUGHT INTO GREAT DISCOURAGEMENT AND UNCERTAINTY AS TO WHAT THEY SHALL DO, BECAUSE THEY HAVE MISTAKEN THE FULL PURPORT OF RELIGION.

VI. THE NEGLECT TO CONSOLIDATE RELIGIOUS FEELINGS INTO HABITS IS FREQUENTLY AN OCCASION OF DISCOURAGEMENT, BECAUSE IT LEAVES MEN SUBJECT TO ALL THE FLUCTUATIONS OF FEELING.

VII. MANY ARE CONVICTED OF SIN LESS DEEPLY AT THE BEGINNING OF THEIR CHRISTIAN LIFE THAN LONG AFTER CONVERSION AND THIS NOT ONLY ALARMS, BUT SERIOUSLY DISCOURAGES THEM. (H. W. Beecher.)Spiritual weariness and its antidote

I. THE LIABILITY OF CHRISTIANS TO SPIRITUAL WEARINESS. Arising from1. The little advancement we seem to make in spiritual excellence. 2. The little good we seem to accomplish in all our efforts to serve our fellows. 3. The little difference which Providence in its dispensation makes between

us and those who are the enemies of Christ. 4. The little influence which our best efforts seem to have in correcting the

evils of our age. II. THE ANTIDOTE OF CHRISTIANS TO SPIRITUAL WEARINESS. Reflection

on Christ will renew our energies, reinvigorate the soul. 1. Consider what He endured. “The contradiction of sinners.” 2. Consider how He endured (1   Peter 2:23 ). 3. Consider why He endured. For His enemies. (Homilist.)

Liability of saints to faint-heartednessIt was stated some time ago, that a man had discovered an invention for

making a form of crystallised carbon, which to all intents and purposes was a diamond; but his invention was useless, because of the difficulty and expense in getting any vessel strong enough to bear the intense heat to which it must be subjected during the process. And so with some of God’s saints, they faint beneath the trial, and the saintly virtue is not formed within their characters, because they have lost the power of endurance. (Canon Newbolt.)

Verse 4Hebrews 12:4

Not yet resisted unto bloodThe law of Christ’s service

I.THE LAW OF CHRIST’S SERVICE. Resistance unto blood.

1. This law is not an arbitrary enactment. It is because the strife is against sin, and sin is an evil so terrible and tremendous that we are to resist unto blood.

2. Christianity is distinguished by its estimate of sin: the character it gives to sin. The darkest death man can die is preferable to sin’s power and penalty.

II. THE MOTIVE TO OBEDIENCE. Christ’s own example. The argument is, Others before you, and, specifically, Christ Himself, have obeyed this law, fulfilled it in their blood, “Ye have not yet.”

1. The law of Christ’s service is a law obeyed in lower spheres of action. Love of freedom, love of country, love of friends, have proved stronger often than love of life. The Roman soldier swore to keep his eagles to the last drop of his blood, and history shows how nobly the oath was kept. Almost every year our hearts are thrilled by the story of men of our own name who have held honour and duty more sacred and precious than life and home.

2. The law of Christ’s service has been obeyed by the good and noble of all ages.

3. Chief of all, the law of Christ’s service is a law obeyed by Christ Himself. (W. Perkins.)

Resisting unto bloodI. SIN IS IN THE WORLD AS THE GREAT ANTAGONIST OF MANKIND. It is

opposed to intelligence, to freedom, to progress, to peace--personal, domestic, social, national, and universal. It is the inspiration of all our foes, the virus in all our sufferings, the fountain of all our sorrows, the burden of all our oppressions.

II. THIS GREAT ANTAGONIST DEMANDS THE MOST STRENUOUS RESISTANCE OF MANKIND.

1. Because the overcoming of this is the overcoming of all enemies. 2. Because it is only by the most strenuous human effort that it can be

overcome. 3. Because our great moral Commander thus strove against sin. How much

more should we!

Resisting unto bloodThe Tabernacle was covered over with red, to note that we must defend the

truth even to the effusion of blood. If we cannot endure martyrdom (if called thereunto) and sweat a bloody sweat for Christ’s sake, we cannot be comfortably assured that we are of His body. John Leafe, a young man, burnt with Mr. Bradford, hearing his own confession, taken before the bishop, read to him, instead of a pen took a pin, and so pricking his hand, sprinkled the blood upon the said bill of his confession, willing the messenger to show the bishop that he had sealed the same bill with his blood already. (John Trapp.)Good standard-bearers

God wants standard-bearers who are willing to make a shroud of their colours. (J. Ker, D. D.)The worst not yet experienced

The figure is changed; the Christian is a wrestler, a pugilist, struggling, fighting against sin; and the Jewish believers are told that up till now no “blood” has been drawn; that is, the fierce severity of the conflict had yet to come. They had no right, therefore, to give way, and no excuse for exhaustion. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

Striving against sinStriving against sin

I. THE ENEMY AGAINST WHICH BELIEVERS STRIVE--Sin. The name of it is short and easily pronounced, but who shall fully declare its dreadful nature?

1. It is an old enemy. Hence in Scripture it is styled the Old Man. It is old, for it existed in us as soon as we began to exist. But it is much older than we are. It appeared in the world almost as soon as it was created--nearly six thousand years ago. Nay, sin is older even than this, for it appeared even in heaven, and ruined myriads of celestial intelligences. It is no new upstart power, then, that believers have to strive against, but a veteran foe long inured to the warfare, and possessing the accumulated experience of innumerable ages.

2. Sin is an enemy that is always near. When driven, as it is in the case of every believer, from the throne of the heart, it is not entirely dislodged from the soul. It still lives and lurks in the nature of believers.

3. Sin is a crafty and deceitful enemy. Its wiles and cunning devices to seduce men, and lead them to the commission of crimes, are innumerable.

4. Sin is an active enemy. It is unwearied in its exertions to extend its influence. It pollutes all we do, and mingles with all we are. As the heart

never ceases from beating, nor the blood from circulating, so sin never ceases from operating. We may sleep, but it never sleeps.

5. Sin is a powerful enemy. We read of “the body of sin,” which implies its strength and vigour. Its “motions do work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.” It often bursts through the strongest resolutions set up to restrain it, as a swollen river beats down its banks and sweeps away everything before it. You may see its strength by looking at the conduct of some of those in whom it reigns. Into what awful lengths in wickedness does it carry them!

II. THE NATURE OF THE CONFLICT ON STRIFE AGAINST SIN. 1. It is universal. It is directed against all sin. It is against secret sins as well

as against open--against sins of the temper as well as against those of the tongue--against sins of the heart as well as against those of the life--and chiefly against sins of the heart, because from them proceed those of the life.

2. It is often a painful conflict. In piercing sin, the believer often feels a sword pierce his own heart. Sin can never be slain in him without his experiencing to some extent its dying agonies.

3. It is a constant and persevering conflict. There is no discharge in this war. It is a war of extermination.

4. This conflict is carried on in the Saviour’s strength. In their own strength believers could never carry the strife on.

5. This conflict is maintained by prayer. “When I cry unto Thee,” said the Psalmist, “then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know, for God is with me.” “In the day that I cried unto Thee, Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.”

6. This conflict is to be carried on with constant watchfulness, Prayer without watchfulness is almost a mockery of God, since in it blessings are solicited, for the attainment of which no care is exercised.

III. SOME OF THE MEANS BY WHICH BELIEVERS SHOULD STRIVE AGAINST SIN.

1. Let them seriously think how hateful and abominable sin is to God. Abominable and offensive as outward sins are to Him, indwelling corruption must be even still more so, for it is the source whence all these proceed.

2. They should check the first motions and workings of sin in their souls. They should give no quarter to criminal thoughts, or evil desires, or unholy inclinations, but endeavour, through the strength of grace, to banish and crush them. By such constant endeavours to strike at the root, indwelling sin will be weakened and its power and strength reduced and kept under.

3. They should carefully avoid temptations to sin. 4. They should do all in their power to preserve and promote sanctified

frames of mind when these are experienced. 5. They should be often engaged in prayer. 6. They must, if they would be successful in striving against sin, strive against

Satan. Sin is just the Old Serpent’s poison. IV. SOME MOTIVES FOR STRIVING AGAINST SIN.

1. This is a strife or warfare which every Christian must maintain. The most shining saint has sin in him. He is only “fair as the moon,” and will never find his principles of holiness brightened with a sunlight lustre, until he enters the kingdom of his heavenly Father.

2. In this strife and warfare the Saviour’s honour is much concerned. Sin disgraces a religious profession.

3. You should strive against sin, for it offends God, and is the object of His infinite abhorrence. It cannot be otherwise, for it is enmity against Him, against His attributes, and against His government. It abuses His goodness, abhors His holiness, despises His love, vilifies His wisdom, denies His justice, defies His power, violates His law, and, if it could, would pluck Him from His throne, and deprive Him of His Being.

4. We should strive against sin, for it is seeking our own ruin. It is a foe, and not a friend. The man who cherishes sin cherishes a viper in his bosom, which will, unless timeously cast from him, turn and sting him to death.

5. Consider the reward they shall receive who truly, and believingly, and preservingly strive against sin. There is a reward for the righteous even now. Their striving against sin tends to their true comfort and enjoyment while here.

V. IMPROVEMENT. 1. Examine yourselves by what you have heard that you may ascertain what

is your true state and character. These will turn upon your bearing in relation to sin.

2. While you strive against sin yourselves you should also strive against it in others.

3. Beware of that strife which is sinful. There is such a thing as not only sinful striving, but a sinful striving against sin. O how much of the contention about religious matters, both in doctrine and practice, may be thus characterised! Let, then, all such striving be avoided. “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”

4. Strive with God. There is a striving with God which is unlawful and destructive, but there is a striving with Him which is allowable and necessary. It is by prayer and supplication.

5. Strive to enter in at the strait gate; the gate, that is, of conversion, faith, “rod repentance. Without engaging in the strife there can be no admission into heaven. (G. Brown.)

Striving against sinI. How we are to strive against sin.

1. By constantly opposing the power of sin in our own hearts. 2. By a steadfast and constant profession of the Christian faith. 3. By a humble and holy dependence on the atonement of Jesus Christ, and

a growing acquaintance with Scripture. 4. By directly and openly condemning it, whenever and by whomsoever it is

committed. II. WHY we should thus strive against sin.

1. Because of its destructive and fatal designs upon our best interests. 2. Because it is the greatest evil that can curse society. 3. Because it will cause us satisfaction in the review when we approach the

world of spirits. There is no alternative between striving against and striving for it. Those who are at peace with sin now will find death at war with them. (D. Jones.)

How to strive against sin1. By prayer. Let us pray against anger, pride, uncleanness, coveteousness,

continually. 2. By Scripture. 3. By the subtracting of the nourishment of that sin. Let us strive against lust

and uncleanness by a sober and temperate life.

4. By embracing the contrary virtue. Instead of pride let us embrace humility; instead of covetousness, liberality; of uncleanness, chastity, &c. (W. Jones,. D. D.)

Striving against sin:The Red Indian will stand to have his flesh cut away by the knives of his

enemies, and will not utter a sigh or groan--will not sue for mercy. Such is the fortitude of that iron will. If the pride of his heart enables him to bear such tortures without murmuring, surely the power of Christian motive is sufficient to cause us to pluck out the right eye, and cut off the right-hand sin, and cast them away from us, that we may present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. In Christ crucified we see the abhorrence with which God regards sin. And when He brings us into communion with Himself in the Cross we shun it, or resist it, as our most deadly foe. Striving against fierce sin:

Where are the heroes “ who resist unto blood striving against sin”? Should we weep or laugh at the foolishness of mankind, childishly spending their indignation and force against petty evils, and maintaining a friendly peace with the fell and mighty principle of destruction. It is just as if men of professed courage, employed to go and find and destroy a tiger or a crocodile that has spread alarm or havoc, on being asked at their return, “Have you done the deed?” should reply, “We have not indeed destroyed the tiger or crocodile, but yet we have acted heroically; we have achieved something great--we have killed a wasp.” Or, like men engaged to exterminate a den of murderers, who being asked at their return, “Have you accomplished the vengeance?” should say, “We have not destroyed any of the murderers; we did not deem it worth while to attempt it; but we have lamed one of their dogs.” (J. Foster.)Not to be discouraged by violent conflict:

Whoever wishes to obtain the victory must not be discouraged by violent opposition. It is reported of Alexander, that when surrounded by his enemies, and sorely wounded, he still maintained his fortitude, and fought upon his knees. Sparticus did the same, covering himself with his buckler in one hand, and using his sword with the other. So the Christian, however wounded, must still persevere, fighting to the end the good tight of faith, that he may lay hold on eternal life.

Verse 5-6

Hebrews 12:5-6Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord

How to bear afflictionsThe proposition that ariseth from the words is this: It is the duty and best

wisdom of afflicted Christians to preserve themselves from the vicious extremes of despising the Schastenings of the Lord, or fainting under them.

I. To “DESPISE THE CHASTENINGS OF THE LORD,” imports the “making no account of them,” as unworthy of serious regard, and includes inconsiderateness of mind, and an insensibleness of heart.

1. Inconsiderateness of mind with respect to the Author or end of chastenings.

2. Insensibility of heart is an eminent degree of despising the Lord’s chastenings. A pensive feeling of judgments is very congruous, whether we consider them “ either materially as afflictive to nature, or as the signs of Divine displeasure”: for the affections were planted in the human nature by the hand of God Himself, and are duly exercised in proportion to the quality of their objects; and when grace comes, it softens the breast, and gives a quick and tender sense of God’s frown.

II. THE CAUSES OF THE DESPISING OF GOD’S CHASTENINGS. 1. A contracted stupidity of soul, proceeding from a course in sin. 2. Carnal diversions. The pleasures and cares of the world, as they render

men inapprehensive of judgments to come, so regardless of those that are present (Luke 21:34).

3. An obstinate fierceness of spirit, a diabolical fortitude. Their hearts are of an anvil-temper, made harder by afflictions, and reverberate the blow; like that Roman emperor, who, instead of humbling and reforming at God’s voice in thunder, thundered back again.

III. I shall proceed to consider the other extreme, of FAINTING UNDER GOD’S REBUKES.

1. The original word signifies “the slackening and relaxing of things that were firmly joined together.”

2. It may respect the sinking and falling away of the soul like water, being hopeless of overcoming troubles. When water is frozen into hard ice it will bear a great burden; but when it is melted, nothing is weaker: so the spirit of a man, confirmed by religious principles, is able to sustain all his infirmities (Proverbs 18:14).

3. The causes of this despondency are usuallyIV. TO PROVE THAT IT IS THE DUTY AND WISDOM OF THE AFFLICTED

NOT TO DESPISE THE CHASTENINGS OF THE LORD, NOR TO FAINT UNDER THEM.

1. It is their duty carefully to avoid those extremes, because they are very dishonourable to God.

2. It is the best wisdom not to despise God’s chastenings, nor faint under them.

(a) It provokes God to withdraw His judgments for a time. This the sinner desired, and thinks himself happy that he is at ease. Miserable delusion l This respite is the presage of his final ruin.

(b) The slighting of lighter strokes provokes God sometimes to bring more dreadful judgments in this life upon sinners. No man can endure that his love or anger should be despised.

(3) Faintings under chastenings is pernicious to sufferers. (a) It renders them utterly indisposed for the performance of duty. He

that is hopeless of a good issue out of troubles, will neither ‘repent nor pray nor reform, but indulges barren tears instead of real duties. Besides, it often falls out, that the same affliction is sent from God’s displeasure upon His people for their sins, and is the effect of the rage of men against them upon the account of their professing His name.

(b) They are incapable of the comforts proper to an afflicted state. Those arise from the apprehension that God loves whom lie chastens Revelation 3:19); for the least sin is a greater evil than the greatest trouble, and His design is to take that away; and from the expectation of a happy issue. Hope is the anchor within the veil, that in the midst of storms and the roughest seas preserves from shipwreck. USE. The use shall be to excite us to those duties that are directly contrary to the extremes forbidden; namely, to demean ourselves under the chastenings of the Lord with a deep reverence and humble fear of His displeasure, and with a firm hope and dependence upon Him for a blessed issue upon our complying with His holy will.

USE

I. With a humble reverence of His hand. This temper is absolutely necessary and most congruous with respect to God, upon the account of His sovereignty, justice, and goodness, declared in His chastenings; and with respect to our frailty, our dependence upon Him, our obnoxiousness to His law, and our obligations to Him that He will please to afflict us for our good.

USEII. Let us always preserve a humble dependence and firm hope on God for a

blessed issue out of all our troubles. 1. The relation God sustains when He afflicts believers. He is a Judge

invested with the quality of a Father. 2. It is a strong cordial against fainting to consider that, by virtue of the

paternal relation, “He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” For no troubles are more afflictive and stinging than those that are unexpected. Now when we are assured that there is no son whom the Father doth not chasten, we are less surprised and less troubled when we meet with crosses.

3. The apostle represents the special prerogative of God as “ the Father of spirits” (verse 9). As a prudent physician consults the strength of the patient as well as the quality of the disease, and proportions his medicine; so all the bitter ingredients, their mixture and measure, are dispensed by the wise prescription of God, according to the degrees of strength that are in His people.

4. The apostle specifies the immediate end of God in His chastenings. God is pleased to fashion us according to His image by afflictions, as a statue is cut by the artificer, to bring it into a beautiful form. He is pleased to bring us into divers temptations to try our faith, to work in us patience, to inflame our prayers, to mortify our carnal desires, to break those voluntary hands whereby we are fettered to the earth, &c. (Wm. Bates, D. D.)

The Lord’s chasteningI. DESPISE NOT THOU THE CHASTENING OF THE LORD. YOU are guilty of

this1. When you shut your eyes to the Author of your affliction. Everything that

takes place in the whole universe comes to pass either by His direct appointment, or by His equally direct permission.

2. When you inquire not the cause of your affliction. God “does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” If therefore He sends

chastisement upon you there must be some adequate cause, which you are bound to search out and discover.

3. When you resist the design of your affliction. You have long, perhaps, been convinced that you ought to forsake sin, and turn wholly to the Lord. But sin has still kept its hold on you; and you have resisted the conviction of your conscience. At length, then, God interrupts your comforts-pours contempt upon your idols; or He comes even closer--chastises you with bodily sickness, sorrow, and pain.

II. FAINT NOT WHEN THOU ART REBUKED OF HIM. 1. Although God be the Author of your sorrows, it is as a Father that He sends

them. All is not against you. Your heavenly Father is for you, and, if you trust Him, will make these “light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

2. Although sin be the cause of year sorrows, yet those sorrows are not the special penalty of sin. They may distress and scorch you, but you are not “ tormented in this flame.” Earth is not hell! Your Father is correcting you rather than punishing you.

3. Although conversion be the design of your sorrows, yet, it, was never intended that these should be, the only meads used by the Lord; and that you should be left, to do all the rest. The very expression, “when thou art, rebuked,” implies that other methods are also employed. He gives “grace for grace”--a Saviour to pardon-a Spirit to heal--promises to encourage and save your soul. (J. Jowett, M. A.)

Chastisement;There are two dangers against which a person under the chastising hand of

God should always be very careful to keep a careful look out. The one is despising the rod, and the other is fainting under it. We will begin with the first; “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.”

I. THIS MAY BE DONE IN FIVE WAYS AND IN DISCUSSING THE SUBJECT I SHALL PROPOSE THE REMEDY FOR EACH OF THESE AS WE PASS ALONG.

1. A man may despise the chastening of the Lord when he mumurs at it. Ephraim is like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; when a son of God first feels the rod he is like a bullock--he kicks at it, he cannot bear it. A want of resignation shows that we despise God’s chastening hand. A word with thee, O murmurer! Why shouldst thou murmur against the

dispensations of thy heavenly Father? Hast thou not read that amongst the Roman emperors of old it was the custom when they would set a slave at liberty, to give him a blow upon the head and then say, “Go free”? This blow which thy Father gives thee is a token of thy liberty, and dost thou grumble because tie smites thee rather hardly? After all, are not Ills strokes fewer than thy crimes, and lighter than thy guilt?

2. We despise the chastening of the Lord when we say there is no use in it. It is always a providence when it is a good thing. But why is it not a providence when it does not happen to be just as we please? Surely it is so; for if the one thing be ordered by God, so is the other. It is written, “I create light and I create darkness, I create good and I make evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.” But I question whether that is not despising the chastening of the Lord when we set a prosperous providence before an adverse one; for I do think theft an adverse providence ought to be the cause of as much thankfulness as a prosperous one.

3. There is a third way in which men despise the chastening of the Lord, that is--we may think it dishouourable to be chastened by God. How many men have thought it dishonourable to be persecuted for righteousness sake! But, my son, thou dost not weigh the blessing rightly. I tell thee it is the glory of a man to be chastened for God’s sake. Now you who faint under a little trouble, and despise the chastening of the Lord, let me encourage you in this way. My son, despise not the persecution. Remember how many men have borne it. What an honour it is to suffer for Christ’s sake! because the crown of martyrdom has been worn by many heads better than thine.

4. Again, in the fourth place, we despise the chastening of the Lord when we do not earnestly seek to amend by it. Many a man has been corrected by God, and that correction has been in vain. Take heed if God is trying you, theft you search and find out the reason. Are the consolations of God small with you? Then there is some reason for it. I have sometimes walked a mile or two, almost limping along, because there was a stone in my shoe, and I did not stop to look for it. And many a Christian goes limping for years because of the stones in his shoe, but if he would only stop to look at them, he would be relieved. What is the sin that is causing you pain? Get it out, and take away the sin, for if you do not, you have not

regarded this admonition which speaketh unto you as unto sons--“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord”

5. Once more: we despise the chastening of the Lord when we despise those that God chastens.

II. The second evil is this: “NOR FAINT WHEN THOU ART REBUKED OF HIM.”

1. The first way of fainting is when we give up all exertion under the rod. 2. Again, the man faints when he doubts whether he is a child of God under

chastisement. Remember the passage: “If we be not partakers of chastisement then are we bastards, and not sons.” Say not He has forgotten thee, but look upon thy trial as a proof of His love. Cecil once called on his friend Williams, and the servant said he could not see him because he was in great trouble, “Then I would rather see him,” said Cecil; and Williams, hearing it was his old pastor, said, “Show him up.” Up he went, and there stood poor Williams, his eyes suffused with tears, his heart almost broken, his dear child was dying: “Thank God,” said Cecil; “ 1 have been anxious about you for some time; you have been so prosperous and successful in everything that I was afraid my Father bad forgotten you; but I know He recollects you now. I do not wish to see your child full of pain and dying; but I am glad to think my Father has not forgotten you.” Three weeks after that Williams could see the truth of it, though it seemed a harsh saying at first.

3. Again, many persons faint by fancying that they shall never get out of their trouble. “Three long months,” says one, “have I striven against this sad trouble which overwhelms me, and I have been unable to escape it.” “For this year,” says another, “I have wrestled with God in prayer that He would deliver me out of this whirlpool but deliverance has never come, and I am almost inclined to give the matter up. I thought He kept His promises, and would deliver those who called upon Him, but He has not delivered me now, and He never will.” What! child of God, talk thus of thy Father! say He will never leave off smiting because He has smitten thee so long? Rather say, “He must have smitten me long enough now, and I shall soon have deliverance.” Say not thou canst escape. The fetters on thy hands may not be broken by thy feeble fingers, but the hammer of the Almighty can break them in a moment. Let them be laid on the anvil of Providence and be smitten by the hand of Omnipotence, and then they shall be

scattered to the winds. Up, man! up. Like Samson, grasp the pillars of thy troubles and pull down the house of thine affliction about the heads of thy sins, and thou thyself shalt come out more than conqueror. Let me ask those who are afflicted and have no religion, where they get their comfort from. The Christian derives it from the fact that he is a son of God, and he knows that the affliction is for his good. But what does the worldling do when he loses his wife, when his children are taken away, when his health departs and he himself is nigh unto death? I leave him to answer. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The aim of Divine chastisementWhom He loves, He loves so much that He will not let them abide in the lower

parts of their nature. He will rout them out; He will drive them up. Whom He loves He means to make more of. He means to ennoble them. A king ennobles a man by putting a crown on his head: but God ennobles men by putting dispositions in their hearts. Whom He loves He chastens and scourges. That is very severe. A man may be chastised with small whips, but no man is scourged except with cord, laid on with soldiers’ hands. It is a horrible operation. God both chastens and scourges men, and all because He loves them. Wonderful love that is! and yet it is just your love. You have not a child whose body is worth more to you than his mind. No child of yours ever told a lie under circumstances of great baseness, that you did not feel rising against him an utter indignation, not because you hated the child, but because you loved him. All your identification with the child pleads for punishment. You said, “It is my child, and he is not worthy of me; and he shall be worthy of me.” As I was reading, “For they”--that is, our parents--“verily, for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.” Great pleasure they had in it, if they felt as I did! I would rather be whipped any time than whip my children. And when my father used to say, “Henry, I do not want to do it,” I used to say to myself, “What under heaven do you do it for then?” I did not want to be whipped; and if he did not want to whip me, it seemed to me a very unnecessary ceremony! But when I became a father, I felt that nothing in the world was more true. When I had children to bring up, they so far inherited my nature that they deserved to be whipped often, and they got their deserts! It was true that I would rather have taken five blows than to have given one; and yet I put it on to them. And I remembered the precept, “What your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Do not you know what that is? Are you not familiar with both sides of the experience? Paul says, “We have had fathers of our flesh which

corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He”--God--“for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Here is the end that God is driving at continually, by such a grand sympathy, by such a tender personal connection with us, by such a constant interference and meddling with all that belongs to us, that we shall not be thralled in lusts and the lower parts of our nature, and depart from His will, and inherit the final remuneration; but that we shall escape, and go up and be made partakers of the Divine nature. (H. W. Beecher.)Faint not when rebuked

1. To “faint” when we as “ rebuked” is to lose self-possession, or to be so overwrought, or overwhelmed with the trial, that we grow insensible to its nature, its extent, its punishment.

2. To “faint” when we are “rebuked” is under the pressure of the sorrow, to relax any duty--for praise or love--and especially to let go our holy confidences, and to take the eye off Jesus.

3. To “faint” when we are “rebuked” is to grow weary on account of its length, and not to let “ patience have her perfect work.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Submission under loss:When John Flavel lost his wife and child in one day--root and branch cut off

together--he acknowledged the bitterness of the cup, but said there was not a drop of injustice in it. Under the severest losses the Marquis de Renty was wont to go to his chamber, and drop on his knees to thank God that not his own but the Lord’s will was done. Submission:

Stonewall Jackson was once asked, “Suppose that these unprofitable eyes of yours, that give you so much trouble, should become suddenly blind, do you believe your serenity would remain unclouded?” He paused a moment, as if to weigh fully the exact measure of every word he uttered, and then said: “I am sure of it; even such a misfortune could not make me doubt the love of God.” Still further to test him it was urged: “Conceive, then, that besides your hopeless blindness, you were condemned to be bedridden, and racked with pain for life; you would hardly call yourself happy then?” There was again the same deliberateness before he replied: “Yes, I think I could; my faith in the Almighty wisdom is absolute: and why should this accident change it?” Touching him upon a tender point--his impatience of anything bordering on every species of

dependence--the test was pushed further. “But if in addition to blindness and incurable infirmity and pain you had to receive grudging charity from those on whom you had no claim, what then?” There was a strange reverence in his lifted eye, and an exalted expression over his whole face, as he replied with slow deliberateness: “If it was God’s will, I think I could lie there content a hundred years!” (H. O. Mackey.)

Whom the Lord loveth He chastenethSuffering, the gift and presence of God:

This, then, is the first, most comprehensive, yet most special way, in which God is the consolation of the afflicted, that He has revealed, that sorrow is a token of His love. We have often thought perhaps, “If God did but tell me that He loves me!” If He has sent you sorrow or pain, He has told you that He loves you.

Suffering is in the order of our salvation; it is in order to our salvation. In the mercy of our God, it arrests the sinner; it deepens the loving sorrow of the penitent; it proves and advances the all-but-perfected. It exhibits us to ourselves; it enhances the love of our Redeemer; it is God’s instrument to make us of one mind with Himself. This, then, is the great comprehensive comfort in every ache of mind or body, that we know infallibly from God’s infallible Word that it is a token of His love. Be it disease or loss of bodily health or strength, or of clearness of intellect, the consequence of sin; be it the shame with which God “ filleth the face that they may seek Thy Face, O God”; be it the first terror of hell, which, by God’s grace, scares the yet unconverted sinner towards the wide-open arms of Jesus on the Cross, or the last sharp pang of death, which lets the imprisoned soul go free, to meet its God for whom it yearned and fainted, we know, by God’s own Word, it is His love. Yet it is not only love, working through some fixed or some general rule of His Providence. It is something far nearer, more tender, more blessed. It is God’s own personal act. It is our Redeemer’s own medicinal hand. “I have afflicted thee.” “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” “Happy is the man whom God correcteth.” “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law.” This is the deep reassuring truth, that it is not man’s caprice, nor a fixed iron law, nor a combination of events, but our own God. This is the deep inward peace in every trial, that He orders each particular blow or weight of sorrow, or fretting care, or harassing discomfort or unrest, in His all-wise love, fitting each trial to our own particular temperament. He gives to each of us just our own trial, what, by His grace, will most amend us, what will bring us most to Himself, what will most

draw out the good which He has implanted in us, or burn out the evil which would most estrange or ruin us. This too is not all. It is not an all-wise God, unseen, unfelt, at a distance, guiding all things in perfect wisdom for the good of each individual creature which He had made. Great were this, yea, in one sense, all; for it is His individual, infinite, personal love. He who loves us infinitely loves us individually. But this too not afar off, not only in the heaven of heavens (Psalms 91:15). Trouble is the special presence of God to the Isaiah 43:2). He who, present with them, soothed to the three youths the flames of fire, so that they fanned softly around them, and were to them an unharming robe of glory; He who, ever-present with His disciples, then appeared to them, when the storm was at its highest, and its waves were boisterous; He, still present to the soul, now soothes to His own the fire of affliction, that, while it burns out the dross, it should not touch the soul, but should yield it pure, transfigured and translucent with the fire of love. He who baptizes with a baptism of blood, holds His own, that, although immersed and sunk deep down, the waters should not come in to the very soul itself, but should only wash away its stains through His most precious blood. Can there be more yet than the presence of God with the soul? Yes, the end of the presence is more to the soul itself than that presence itself. For it is the earnest of His abiding presence, yea, of union with God. Suffering, the due reward of our deeds, becomes, by His mercy, the means of conforming us to the Son of His love. While we suffer for our own sins, and bear about us less than their deserved chastisements, God gives us yet an outward likeness to His Cross, in that it is suffering. For “ on Him were laid the iniquities of us all.” But we still hang, as it were, by His side; His healing compassionate look falls upon us; from His all-holy sufferings there goeth forth virtue to sanctify ours. Hence is deserved suffering by God’s mercy such a token of predestination, that it brings us near to, makes us partakers of, the sufferings of Christ. (E. B.Pusey, D. D.)The mystery of suffering:

This, after its sort, is a kind of philosophy, a phenomenon of human experience. Everything in nature, according to the measure of its power, is happier than man. Men have been studying how to create happiness that should be unbroken in this world. They have invented a great many things, found out a great many medicines, but happiness has eluded their search. A steady flow of happiness, a soul that knows how to keep time as that watch knows how to keep time, has never been born, and does not live. We flit between light and dark blow, happiness is certainly, we may believe, the final end of creation.

Whatsoever maketh a lie or causeth offence in the grand land of consummation will have been purged out, and happiness without alloy will yet be the end of every true life that by sorrow and suffering has been wrought out into the full possession of its birthright. The process or education of man in this world proceeds on the law of suffering--happiness the graduating point; suffering the academy, the seminary; and the best teachers are the teachers that inflict suffering on man. Clear down to the last vision they are highest that have been most suffering in the great school of this life. It is the law of education. Why it was made so, if you know, please instruct me. Why did God make things thus and so? Why did He make the law of suffering the law of education, rather than the law of happiness? This why pours into the gulf of ignorance. We don’t know. We are ignorant in proportion as we go back to the beginnings of things. These are secrets that no science will penetrate; at any rate, not for ages yet; these lie hidden in the bosom of God. But Christ is the type of the moral kingdom of God. It was necessary to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering, because He was leading the multitude, the whole world’s population, towards elevation through suffering, and He entered Himself under that august law of the universe, suffering. It is a badge of discipleship--suffering is. Men do not come to the fulness of their relation to God except through it. Now, look at the scale of suffering. The first is physical pain, which is the lowest; it is cautionary. The remembrance of it prevents a man violating some natural law; that is, some law that has its seat in the physical structure of the man’s own body. It teaches men patience; it teaches men to bear valiantly. Cheerfulness under physical suffering is a wonderful victory, repining is a defeat. If a man shirks down, if he sneaks into complaints and all forms of bewilderment, and dissipated faith, he is wretched indeed, and there is no moral end gained under such circumstances. Then, aside from the suffering which comes to us through our bodily organs, there is that suffering which comes to us through the law of evolution in ourselves. The law of conflict between the lower man and the higher man, or, as St. Paul phrases it, “between the flesh man and the spirit man.” If, in unfolding ourselves from childhood to manhood, the process goes on by which we subdue the animal that is in us, and the passions that belong to it, by the ascendency of higher social, moral and intellectual inspirations, then suffering is more immediately and perceptibly a schoolmaster. Men are driven up higher and higher towards the citadel of God, by the sufferings which take place in the conflict between the lower and the higher man. Living largely in the West in my early life, I had the

opportunity of beholding phenomena that are good illustrations. When the great western rivers were suddenly swollen, and booming freshets came tearing down, flooding the country on either side, I have seen the river Ohio, that was not a quarter of a mile wide, ten miles wide in the flood. Nothing is more familiar to the settlers than the fact that the animals are all driven from the lower places, and frequently it is the case that they mount to some round hill and the water following surrounds it, and they are imprisoned on that hill. But they still go higher up, and higher up, and higher up, until they get a place that is a refuge. Suffering that teaches an animal to go up ought to teach a man to go up. Then suffering is still on another level, where we suffer by our social relations, where we suffer with and for each other, and here is the beginning of the grandeur of the kingdom of suffering. Vicarious suffering then, I may say at last, is the law of the universe. Christ entered into the world to partake of those very things that the race have passed through, “Tempted in all points like as we are,” tried into all points as we are; and as it is the law of social connection that one shall suffer for another, Christ suffered for men under the same great grand law of vicarious suffering. That is a wretched child, that is a wretched man, who has no one to suffer for him. Then, higher than this, or rather more extended in its relation, is the suffering which men have in civic relations. Men are not individuals. Man is a collective animal; every man stands on his own stem, but he also stands on the trunk which holds up a million stems, and if anything afflicts the root it afflicts everything at the top. Although blossom is not identical with blossom, nor fruit with fruit, human life is made up of individualisms; but collected and made into one great organisation. And so men must suffer when society suffers. Then, next and yet higher, men suffer on account of their moral relations that unite them to man and to God and to the universe. The progress of knowledge is through suffering. One man suffers, and leaves a glow of new truth behind him, which irradiates the whole of a generation. Thus far we can see and understand. But the world is the workshop of heaven. There we shall see the consummation of that which we see but feebly and understand but partially. Many there are on earth who see no outcome; they are underfoot, they are out of place; suffering seems not only to bring to them no relief and no inspiration, but it seems never to have declared its real nature to their surroundings or to their generations. Oh I there will be a land where these things will be known; there will be an interpretation to every pang and to every tear, and to every crushing sorrow; and as for those who suffer for a noble cause, who suffer for children, who suffer for

those who have no parents, who suffer for the community, though they are accounted unworthy, and are east out by the community, though they be crushed out of life and hope, and go mourning all the days of their lives, there is a reckoning--that is to say, there is to be an unfolding of the reasons of their suffering, and the results of it which do not by any means all appear upon this mortal sphere and in this limited life--it is to be made known. You do not know what is going on, you do not know all the meaning of your sorrow; God does. Do you suppose that the wool on the sheep’s back knows what it is coming to when it is sheared? When it was scoured, and washed, and spun, and twisted of its life almost; when it went into the hateful bath of colour; when it was put into the shuttle, and was thrust back and forth, back and forth, in the darkness, and out came the royal robe, it did not know what it started for; yet that is what it comes to--kings wear it. The flax in the field sighs to be made into the garment of the saints. All right. Pluck it up; rot it, put it under the brick, thread it, weave it, bleach it, purify it; and the saints may wear it now. It came to honour and glory through much suffering. Suffering is God’s guardian guiding angel to those that will; it takes them up through the gate of trouble and trial to that land of perfectness and of everlasting peace. And you do not know what your suffering means? Yet you may rejoice in the general fact that somehow or other it is going to make you glorious if you are only worthy of it. Allow me still one more figure; for some may take one figure easily and some another. When this organ was built the lead and the zinc did not know what the men were about when they were melting them, and making them into pipes, and when the work was distributed through the different shops among different hands. Here you have the sesquialtera and the mixture--hideous stops unless they are masked or hidden under a great weight of sound. If you tried them in the factory you would run out with your fingers in your ears, and cry, “Lord deliver me from that sort of music! “ Then there are the flute stops, and the diapasons in their grand under tones. With all the different parts of the organ separately made, unconnected, nobody can tell what is coming except an experienced workman; but by-and-by, little by little, the frame is erected, the stops are all arranged and in connection with the wind-chest, and now that it is an organic whole every part plays into every other part. As a whole it is magnificent; but the separate steps were poor and weak and unsatisfactory. God makes stops on earth, but He builds the organ in heaven; and many a man will never know till he comes there what was the reason of that providence by which he was trained and fitted to be of that great band of music in the heavenly home.

Thus far illustrated and explained the subject will give rise to some applications. And, first, no man should hunt after suffering any more than a man should hunt after sickness. Do not regard suffering as if it were in and of itself a means of grace. If it makes you better it will come of itself. Secondly, lower animal suffering is penalty for sin; but, going up the scale, it is not punishment, but the other way. Men suffer because they are so good; they are the vicarious sufferers for those who are not good, through sympathy, through pity, through endeavour to help them, through self-repression for the development of those that are round about. I have but one more thought, and that is final--not alone in this sermon, but final in creation. No imagination can conceive the wonder, the ecstasy, of the great hour of finding out. When we have borne our body, borne our allotted suffering and pain, borne our obscurity and our persecution, borne all the troubles that go to the making of manhood in this life, unrecognised, not rated according to our moral value, rated according to the law of selfishness in human society, when at last emancipated the pauper from the poorhouse, the debtor from the prison, the broken-down man in business, who has been living on the crusts of his former prosperity, mothers, nurses, servants, whose souls were greater than their places, when at last they shall come and stand in the light of the eternal heavens--oh, what a surprise, and oh, what a dismay, when the last tumble from their heights of imagined greatness, when the first shall be last, and the last first! But oh! when the suffering is all gone, and we come to find ourselves, and come to find that the work of life, racking, filing, sawing in various violent ways upon us, has made us perfect, and we stand in the light of the other life, to see the meaning of all that has taken place in our obscure life--oh, what an hour of joy and of consolation! (H. W. Beecher.)The ministry of sorrow:

There is no fact in human life more certain than universality of suffering, and there is, perhaps, nothing for which man finds a greater difficulty to discover an adequate or satisfactory reason. The Bible does not solve the difficulty. The Bible deals with the subject practically, and only practically. The Bible never satisfies your speculative inquiry. No question is solved by the Book so as to answer everything that you can ask. It is only solved so that yon can live as faithful servants of the Eternal One. And the Bible shows us the relation of suffering to sin. But, finally, it bids us fall back upon God. He will do right, He will make all well, He is the great consoler of man. These are the three facts that lie in this text of ours: sorrow, discipline, love.

I. THE ACCEPTANCE OF GOD’S MERCY DOES NOT ASSURE THE BELIEVER FROM THE LOT OF THE SUFFERER. It is perfectly true we may promise to him who accepts the gospel much joy and much pleasure. For a man to place himself in harmony with the Divine law; for him to say, “No longer my will but Thine be done”; for him to seek no more his ends but the Divine ends; he will find therein the peace, the calm, the quiet restfulness, enter his spirit, and will give him infinite delight. Now, this is true; but at the same time the believer will not be exempt from the conditions of distress. They will come. Natural griefs will be yours. The imperfections of his own character will distress him; the ideal that we sometimes set before us, and then the real that is ours; the picture that we would paint, and the unhappy daub that is often the result of our best endeavour; the beautiful garments that we would set upon ourselves--the garments of righteousness and glory--richer and brighter than the garments that the angels wear--and then the poor tattered rags of the righteousness that we have lost, and the smear and smirch of the secular wrong or the sensual vice into which we have fallen. Oh the disappointment through which life seems to pass until it shall reach the blessed consummation which you hope for! I promise you blessedness, infinite blessedness; but the sorrows will conic.

II. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE BELIEVER ARE INTENDED TO BE DISCIPLINES OF LIFE AND MINISTRIES OF CHARACTER. They direct the soul to its true home and life. Life eternal, remember, is a quality; it is not merely a state; and you may enter into eternal life now. Your sorrows and your pains do not belong to the eternal life; and they are given to you that you may lift your spirit out of the surroundings of the present, and that you may clothe them with the glory and the blessedness that belongs to the life that lies beyond. Yes; and these sufferings limit and destroy the evil that remains. And think of the scope it gives for the practice and perfection of the Christian’s virtues.

III. THESE SUFFERINGS, BEING DISCIPLINARY, ARE THE PROOFS AND THE RESULTS OF THE DIVINE LOVE. They are signs that God has not forgotten us. One of the most famous men of this city one day said to me: “I know not how it is, I sometimes tremble at the success of my life. I have wealth beyond the dreams of avarice; I have success in business phenomenal even in these days of success; I have a satisfaction and joy in my family life and in all the relations of my public life that I cannot describe; I sometimes tremble with fear and apprehension.” Within six months that man was smitten--smitten in what was the dearest part of his own self-consciousness; charged with an unworthy action,

charged with base behaviour, and held up to obloquy because of things done in his name over which he had no control, and for which he was not responsible, but for which he suffered. Ah! God had not forgotten him. What is God’s will concerning you? It is not merely your joy; it is the bettering of your moral nature; it is the perfecting of all those virtuous characteristics that come out even in the midst of your sorrow. And it is always accompanied by some proof of peculiar favour. When sometimes your loved ones have entered into the place of sorrow, be silent; God is with them. “Far off, far off, ye profane ones!” was the cry of the ancient priestess. So, sometimes, should be the cry to your own souls when the presence of God is manifested in the sorrows of those you love. This is the spirit in which we should receive it, and this is the forecast of its complete removal. For the work of chastisement shall be perfected. All the dealings of God with us shall issue in the attainment of the highest conceptions of the Christian life. And when sorrow shall have done its work, we shall have entered into that infinite life where death itself shall die, and sin itself shall be forgotten, the life that issued even out of the sins and the sorrows and the death of this. (L. D.Bevan, D. D.)Trouble for our good

The dealings of the Lord, which seem so mysterious to us, may be and often are, the answer to some forgotten petition for spiritual gifts or grace which we have desired. (Anna Shipton.)Adversity the blessing of the New Testament:

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carried the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God’s favour. (Lord Bacon.)Love in pain

Years ago I went into the operating room of University College Hospital, and once saw one of the most skilled of our surgeons removing a limb. It was my first sight of the movement of the surgeon’s knife. I could not keep back a shudder. It made me ill to note the writhing of the sufferer as the cruel instrument penetrated the quivering flesh. I looked at the surgeon’s face. Not a muscle betokened anxiety. His gaze was steady, his spirit calm. His larger vision of the issues, the beneficent issues of his work, filled him with strength, steadied his nerve, and delivered him from weakening fear. The sight of his countenance made me strong. I could look to the end in calm self-control. So have I often found an unspeakable consolation in the joy of God. If He, the Lord of this pain-filled, care-laden, sin-fettered life, where misery and sin and shame abound, and the

struggle is so keen, and the strife so dinning; if He is glad and blessed amid all this, it is because He sees all and knows all. (D. Clifford, D. D.)Afflictions precious:

When Munster lay sick, and his friends asked him how he did, and how he felt himself, he pointed to his sores and ulcers (whereof he was full) and said, “These are God’s gems and jewels wherewith He decketh His best friends, and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world.” (J. Trapp.)Afflictions--tokens of Divine regard

Lawns which we would keep in the best condition are very frequently mown; the grass has scarcely any respite from the scythe. Out in the meadows there is no such repeated cutting, they are mown but once or twice in the year. Even thus the nearer we are to God, and the more regard He has for us, the more frequent will be our adversities. To be very dear to God, involves no small degree of chastisement. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Divine discipline

In Southern Europe grow the larches. When they were first introduced into England, the gardeners took it for granted that they needed warmth to cause them to grow; so they were placed in the hothouses, and at once began to wither and droop. The gardeners became disgusted, and threw them out of doors. They at once began to grow, and became trees of great beauty. So it ofttimes becomes necessary for Christ to throw us out of doors into the cold of reverses, disappointments, sorrow, and pain, that our Christian characters may be developed. It becomes at times necessary that God bring upon us sore trials and bereavements that we may be brought back to Him and His service. God does not willingly afflict His people; but in order to bless us it is often necessary to put us in a position to receive and to appreciate His blessings, though it may be through severe trials and galling crosses. (C. W. Bibb.)Divine discipline:

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things. Far up the mountain side lies a block of granite, and says to itself, “How happy am I in my serenity--above the winds, above the trees, almost above the flight of the birds! Here I rest, age after age, and nothing disturbs me.” Yet what is it? It is only a bare block of granite, jutting out of the cliff, and its happiness is the happiness of death. By and by comes the miner, and with strong and repeated strokes he drills a hole in its top, and the rock says, “What does this mean?” Then the black powder is poured in, and with a blast that makes the mountain

echo, the block is blown asunder, and goes crashing down into the valley. “Ah!” it exclaims as it falls, “why this rending?” Then come saws to cut and fashion it; and humbled now, and willing to be nothing, it is borne away from the mountain and conveyed to the city. Now it is chiselled and polished, till, at length, finished in beauty, by block and tackle it is raised, with mighty hoistings, high in air, to be the top-stone on some monument of the country’s glory. So God Almighty casts a man down when He wants to chisel him, and the chiselling is always to make him something finer and better than he was before. (H. W. Beecher.)

Verse 7-8Hebrews 12:7-8

If ye endure chasteningChastening: what is it?

“It is for chastening that ye endure”--such is the reading and translation in the R.V. That is the purpose sought and prized; an end that sufficiently justifies God in such dealing with His sons, and that sustains His sons in experience of His dealing.

1. But what is “chastening”? Supposing we had a word that meant child-training, son.training, and this under the direction of a father who would spare no pains necessary for its perfect realisation, we should have exactly the corresponding term. But unfortunately we have not, and so we are driven to put up with the poor substitute “chastening.” The father knows his child, his capacities, and, therefore, all the possibilities that are locked up in his being; his opportunities as they lie in the pathway of life, and therefore his obligations; his propensities and habits, and therefore his perils; his hindrances and helps, and therefore his chances. The father yearns over his boy; labours to secure the highest outcome of his life; guards and directs him; will do anything and bear anything for his advancement. He wants him to be an ideal son; his pride and joy in every faculty and feature of excellence. He wants to “make a man “ of him; so that the terms “father” and “son,” “son” and “father,” may never jar, as they dwell on each other’s lips, but may be as choice music to the ear, as beauty to the eye. For that end, with that hope, all is planned, all is done. It is at once the father’s care, he “trains”; and the son’s ambition, he “endures for the training.” The application is obvious. “It is for chastening that ye endure”; to be sons, not in name only, but in deed and in truth; to

come up, to be urged up to the standard. Such an issue may well reconcile us to all the pains and humiliations of the “ chastening.” To have the mind enlarged, the heart purified, the life exalted, refined, transfigured! To lose all that is dross; to cast out all that is low and selfish!

2. Now for the word “endure.” This is no tame word. It Jeans something widely different from insensibility, or proud defiance. These Hebrews had joyfully taken the spoiling of their goods, not that they did not value them, not that their loss was no privation, but that they knew in themselves they had a better and an enduring substance in heaven. They had a boldness, a confidence, an exultation even. “Endurance” in them was the triumph of active faith in the recompense of reward. They were “exercised,” much “ exercised” in their afflictions, and the “exercise,” like a Divine alchemy, was turning every constituent of distress into gold.

I. WHO DOUBTS THE NEED OF CHASTENING? Sin in one or other of its myriad forms has aggravated all the imperfections of inexperience, so that we require far surer correction and direction than a childhood and youth of innocence had ever called for.

II. WHO DOUBTS SHE SPIRIT IN WHICH THIS CHASTENING IS INFLICTED? Dictated by love, directed by wisdom, aimed at the highest ends, it has every quality to keep us alike from despising it or fainting under it.

III. WHO IS NOT DRIVEN TO RIGOROUS SELF-EXAMINATION? There is no talismanic power in afflictions, in pains and penalties, that of itself can correct and transform. Would we realise the” profit” our Father seeks, we must be “ exercised” by our chastening. It calls for thought, for reflection, for faithful survey of our life, with its temper, aims, and spirit.

IV. WHO DOES NOT REJOICE IN THE ADVANCE OF CORRECTION AND GROWTH? The mastery of our evil tendencies, the due regulation of our desires, the elevation of our motives and aims, the higher and completer discharge of the claims of life, the stricter integrity, purity, and spirituality of our characters, the closer our likeness to Christ and our fellowship with God, these and kindred issues may well reconcile us to the pain, and sacrifice, and cost of the chastening, and make us “kiss the rod” with all praise. (G. B. Johnson.)God’s medicine:

If a man be visited with a providential reverse of circumstances, if he be under oppression, if he be attacked by disease, if the delight of his eyes be taken away,

methinks I hear God saying, “Take this medicine; it is exactly suited to your case; weighed out by My own hand; take this medicine from Me.” (R. Cecil.)

God dealeth with you as with sonsLife an education

I. GOD EDUCATES US BY MEANS OF OUR PHYSICAL NEEDS. Man is born naked and defenceless; if he would live he must obtain shelter from torrid suns and piercing cold; he must provide himself with food and raiment; he must, by means of his wits, be able to defend himself against enemies infinitely more powerful than himself. How is it that man alone, of all God’s creatures, is sent into the world unprovided with any of those things which are necessary to the support of physical life? It is because God dealeth with us as with sons. It is because life is meant to be to us, and to us alone, an education; and from the first we are pricked on by these goads of necessity. God has taken security that our work shall not be easy, that it shall not be mechanical; but that it shall tax our ingenuity and educe our mental powers to the uttermost. For man is born not only without instinct and without clothing, but without tools. Nature provides the lion with the claws and fangs which make it easy to seize its prey; the bee has in itself all the apparatus necessary for extracting honey, and carrying it, and building its cells, and acting out all its life-history; the spider has its wonderful film ready wound about its body, and the machinery for spinning many threads into one, and affixing it, and weaving its web; but man must first provide himself with external aid if he would hold his own, be it but a sharpened flint or a fishbone! Moreover, God has made man relatively one of the weakest of living things. His bodily powers are poor indeed compared with those of other creatures. What does it all mean? It means this, that God would educate us not chiefly in body, but in mind; it is by the brain that man has subdued the earth and become lord over all creation; it is the necessity of surmounting difficulties and guarding against dangers that has called forth all his resources and educated his faculties and perfected his powers. See, then, how large a part of man’s education is due to his bare bodily necessities! In the endeavour to meet these he has invented all the industrial arts and sciences. And it is not only mental gifts which labour educes. Patience, endurance, forethought, courage--these and many other moral qualities are the outcome of that necessity for work which God lays upon us all.

II. GOD EDUCATES MEN BY MEANS OF THEIR MENTAL NEEDS. He has implanted in nature that which awakens curiosity in man, and He has implanted in man a hunger and thirst after knowledge and truth, and the result is education.

Man’s intellectual needs are not less imperative than his physical requirements; they must be satisfied at any cost. He must know all about the flowers at his feet; the science of botany is the result. He raises his eyes to the stars above; their mystery perplexes him; generation after generation he struggles with this mystery till little by little the secrets of the sky are discovered, and the great science of astronomy is pieced together. Curiosity awakened by shells and fossils has led to geology; curiosity about the antecedents of our race has led to history, and so forth. It is thus with all those departments of knowledge which are not purely utilitarian; they are all the result of the desire for knowledge implanted in us by God, acted upon by external nature. And there is in man another intellectual appetite nobler than any of these, which is most powerful in evolving his higher nature--I mean the love of the beautiful. God has clothed hill and vale, mountain and lake, sea and sky, with splendour of colour and form of which the eye never wearies. And further He has put something in the human heart to which these things appeal; there is a strange correspondence between the human soul and the beauties of nature; they were made for one another; there was meant to be action and re-action between them. When gazing on a sunset sky or a lovely scene we realise our immortality as at no other time; we feel that they have a message from God for us.

III. GOD EDUCATES US BY THE SORROWS AND TRIALS OF LIFE. In this matter also man’s position is unique. The lower animals are almost exempt from suffering. It is true that they are liable to physical pain, but there is abundant evidence to prove that this pain is much less acute than in human beings, and in their case there is neither anticipation nor retrospection. But man, to whom was given the dominion over the brutes, man, who was made but a little lower than the angels, how different is his lot! He is “ born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward.” He alone has to endure those mental and spiritual griefs compared with which bodily sufferings are as nothing. All his life is leavened with pain, with forebodings, with vain regrets, with unsatisfied longings. Why is this? Because life is an education; because God dealeth with us as with sons. Men ask why sorrows are permitted. As well might the flower ask why clouds and stormy days are permitted. As well might one expect blossoms and fruit without rain as expect that men can bring forth the fruits of righteousness without the discipline of sorrow. The saintliest of men have been always those who have suffered most; and it behoved even the great Captain of our salvation to be made perfect

through suffering in order to teach us that only be who drinks the bitter cup and bears the cross of shame can hope to wear the crown of glory.

IV. GOD EDUCATES US BY OUR SPIRITUAL NEEDS. The most imperative want of our nature is to know God. Everywhere there is a belief in a God or gods, the instinct of worship, conscience more or less developed. Everywhere is felt the necessity of propitiating and being reconciled to the Invisible Power whom transgression has offended. And the more a man advances in holiness and moral greatness, the more is he impelled to make the thought of the Psalmist his own: “Like as the hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God”; “My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” And while he is ever hungering after God with a hunger which nothing on earth can appease, conscience is ever urging him to a closer and closer walk with God, and yet he never feels that he has fully attained or is already perfect. What is the reason why these strange desires and instincts have been implanted in man? What but the truth our text teaches that God dealeth with us as with sons? Just as God has given in the book of Nature that which educes and partly satisfies man’s intellectual needs, so He has given us in Holy Scripture that which educes and ministers to our spiritual needs. The correspondence between our craving for knowledge, and the revelation by which that craving is met, affords the clearest proof that both are from God, and that in sacred things as in secular the main purpose of our life is education.

1. It throws light upon the mystery of the present. This earth is but the lowest room in God’s school; in other spheres and at other times the education which circumstances thwarted and hindered here will be carried on under happier circumstances.

2. And it throws light upon the mystery of the future. It affords one of the strongest arguments for a future life. For, of course, the education which is commenced here can be at best but in its initial stage when death removes us. (A. M. Mackay, B. A.)

Correcting a son:Like as if two children should fight, and a man passing by should part them,

and afterwards beat the one and let the other go free, every one that seeth this will say that the child which he beat is his own son: even so when God chastiseth us, if we submit. (Cawdray.)Adversity a purifier

God often uses adversity as a purifier. The wintry snows that lie before my window here (at Saratoga) this morning will kill the vermin; so God sends wintry seasons upon His children to kill certain species of besetting sins. (T. L. Cuyler.)Severe discipline

A child was taken ill with that dangerous disorder the croup. It was a child most ardently beloved, and, ordinarily, very obedient; but, in this state of uneasiness and pain, he refused to take the medicine which it was needful, without delay, to administer. The father, finding him resolute, immediately punished his sick and suffering son. Under these circumstances, and fearing that his son might soon die, it must have been a most severe trial to the father: but the consequence was, that the child was taught that sickness was no excuse for disobedience; and, while his sickness continued, he promptly took whatever medicine was prescribed, and was patient and submissive. Soon the child was well. Does any one say that this was cruel? It was one of the noblest acts of kindness which could have been performed. If the father had shrunk from duty here, it is by no means improbable that the life of the child would have been the forfeit. (W. Abbott.)The stripes of love:

Fear not: these stripes are the tokens of His love. He is no son that is not beaten; yea, till he smart, and cry; if not, till he bleed. No parent corrects another’s child; and he is no good parent that corrects not his own. O rod, worthy to be kissed, that assures us of His love, of our adoption. (Bp. Hall.)

Verse 9-10Hebrews 12:9-10

Subjection unto the Father of spiritsDivine correction

I.THE DUTY IS SUBJECTION. “Shall we not be in subjection?” This is not opposed to insensibility. There is no patience, no resignation, in bearing what we do not feel. If you do not prize what you give up at the call of God, there can be no value in your obedience. But it is the repression of everything rebellious--in our carriage--in our speech--and in the temper of our minds.

II. Let us consider THE REASONS BY WHICH THIS DUTY IS ENFORCED. Here are four motives.

1. The first is derived from the relation in which God stands to us. He is our Father. But to what does this lead? The conclusion, says the apostle, is obvious. If He pre-eminently fills this relation, His claims to duty are proportionally great. You gave the fathers of your flesh reverence. And shall a man obtain more obedience than God?

2. This brings us to the second reason of submission. It is taken from the danger of resistance. “Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?” Clearly intimating that disobedience will end in death. There cannot be a more awful presage of future misery than to counteract the afflictive dispensations of Divine Providence, and “ despise the chastening of the Almighty.” It provokes the anger of God, and operates penally in one of these two ways. Either, first, it induces God to recall the rod, and give a man up to the way of his own heart, or, secondly,

He turns the rod into a scorpion, and fulfils the threatening: “If ye will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will walk contrary unto Me, then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.”

3. The third motive is taken from the brevity of the discipline. They verily chastened us; but it was only “a few days.” The child soon became a man, and the course of restriction and preparation resulted in a state of maturity. This is to be applied to our heavenly Father, and contains an encouraging intimation, that the whole season of trial, when opposed to our future being and blessedness, is but a short period.

4. The last motive is derived from the principle and design of affliction. Men are imperfect, and their actions are like themselves. Hence, when as their children they chastened us, it was frequently “for their pleasure.” They would do it. It was to give ease to their passions; to vent their feelings. It was to show their authority, or maintain their consequence, regardless of our welfare. But this is not the case with God. “He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” He does it only “if needs be”--He does it “for our profit.” What profit? A profit that infinitely weighs down every other advantage, and which, above all things, yea, and by “ any means,” you should be anxious to secure: spiritual profit; Divine profit--“that you might be partakers of His holiness.” If God chastens us to make us holy, we learn

The purpose of Divine chastisements

In nothing, perhaps, is it so hard to feel for ourselves and to help others to feel that God is good, as in life’s great afflictions. We are so prone to look only at the present sorrow and forget the future joy. “Why is this so? Can it be that there is mercy in such seeming wrath?” God condescends to reason with us, from the analogy of parental affection, drawing both argument and illustration. We have often felt the beauty of the methods elsewhere used for presenting the same essential truth, as, for example, where God compares Himself to the refiner of silver, melting His people down in the crucible of affliction to “purge away their dross”; but in this comparison is couched the beauty of an unutterable tenderness. He addresses our parental instincts, and asks us whether we do not ourselves know that love and chastening are not contradictory or inconsistent. I need not say that this doctrine of love as the impulse and interpreter of affliction is peculiarly Biblical. When calamity befell a pagan he beheld in it a mark of Divine displeasure, and at once set himself at work to appease the wrath of Deity. Even the ancient people of God were very slow to accept the right view of God’s chastisements.

I. The first element of contrast suggested by the text is this. OUR HUMAN PARENTS PUNISH PASSIONATELY, AND NOT ALWAYS DELIBERATELY. Without meaning to, without, perhaps, being conscious of it, they are sometimes simply giving vent to impatient, excited, or even angry feeling, in chastising their offspring. The impatient impulse, the caprice of the moment, rules us and puts into the correction the severity, it may be violence, of an indignation by no means wholly righteous. God is not susceptible of anything like passion as we understand it--either in its impulsiveness, impetuosity, malice, or malignity. Even God’s anger is the unchanging hatred of evil--the anger of principle, not of passion--calm even in its fury, slow even in its haste, cool even in its heat. Our anger is like the agitation of a shallow lake, rippled with every breeze. All this is our assurance in affliction that God cannot deal harshly, severely, or unjustly with us. With the calmness of eternal patience, the steadfastness of eternal love, He afflicts us solely for our good.

II. Again, our earthly parents chastise us PUNITIVELY AND NOT CORRECTIVELY. They aim more to punish the offence than to correct the evil and reform the evildoer. Here is another way in which passion often inflicts chastisement. An earthly father is grieved and rightly angry because the son has offended against truth, virtue, honesty, integrity. This is a far nobler passion than the caprices of ill-temper, yet it is doubtful whether a parent can be sure of

inflicting profitable correction under its influence. It hurries one into a method of punishment which hardens rather than softens which is ill-adapted to the peculiar temperament of the child, which may restrain from similar offences, if at all, only from fear of the rod, and not at all from love of the right. It should ever be borne in mind that the highest purpose of all punishment is not the vindication of a principle, but the reformation of an offender, or at least the salvation of others from similar sins. To contend for a principle is noble, but oh, how insignificant all else in comparison with the welfare of a soul! Oh, let us not forget that true love of the parent may help to kindle that true love of the right which is stronger than any fear of correction. The word here rendered “chasten,” means educate. All God’s chastening is meant to educate His children; His dealings are designed as a discipline. He must punish our offences; but the grand end He proposes to Himself is to secure our sanctification and salvation. God teaches us that with Him fatherly pity prompts His chastisements. In all God’s afflictions He consults the exact temperament of His children. He knoweth our frame. It is one of the most palpable facts of history that the men who have wielded the mightiest moral influence have been prepared for it by the severest Divine discipline. No less means would have subdued that great will and made its stubbornness an element of steadfastness anti stability. A degree of heat that must melt down the harder metals is far more intense than that which melts the softest; yet when made into vessels, that which it took the hotter fire to fuse is far the stronger and more serviceable; while you can bend and twist the other, this is unaffected by hard usage. So does God use the chastening rod with tender consideration for our temperament and constitution, adapting His discipline to our need. If we desire the largest fitness for service, we must submit to His wise chastening.

III. Again, our earthly parents chastens us IMPERFECTLY, NOT INFALLIBLY according to their own fallible judgment of right and wrong. This thought is suggested in the text by the phrase, “according to their own pleasure,” literally according to what seemed good or right to them. Parental love is imperfect, and so is parental wisdom, so that with the best possible intentions grave mistakes may be committed in a child’s discipline. Hero appears perhaps the principal emphasis of the text: They, according to what seemed good: He, according to what is good for us. God reminds us that He cannot err. The chastening He inflicts is for our profit--and let us grasp the full meaning--not only for our profit is it designed, but adapted. Not what seems best, but what is best. Oh, let us remember the perfect fatherhood and fatherliness of God! This is the profit for

which He chastens us, as He Himself defines it, “that we might be partakers of the Divine holiness.”

IV. Once more, our earthly parents chasten us TEMPORARILY, NOT PERMANENTLY, as the text says, “for a few days.” This phrase means more than it seems to imply. It probably refers to the fact that much of our parental training looks to immediate results, not remote ones--it is with reference to a few days, or at most to our short earthly life. The effect is transient, not permanent. Now, God’s chastening always looks to eternal results. That which is near at hand impresses us most vividly; we are therefore always emphasising present good and undervaluing the more precious things of the hereafter. How different must all this appear to God, whose omniscient eye sees the end from the beginning, and to whom the remotest future is as vivid as the present, the remotest result as real as the present process! (A. T. Pierson, D. D.)Our virtues witnesses against us:

There is a very interesting argument involved in this saying of the apostle--the argument from what we are as men to what we ought to be as Christians. A dutiful child submits meekly to a father’s correction; why, then, do we not submit meekly to the correction of God? The mere fact of submission to the human goes far towards showing that it is not through any actual inability that we refuse submission to the Divine Parent. The reasoning, in short, is a reasoning from what men are as members of society to what they ought to be as creatures of God; and they may be brought under condemnation if they fail to act towards God, displaying Himself under certain characters, as they act towards their fellow-men, who bear those same characters, though only subordinately. And this reasoning is of very wide application--so that what we may term our social conduct will furnish overwhelming evidence against us at the last, if we are not found among those who have loved and served God. If God demand faith in His Word, are we not capable of believing? Are we not accustomed to believe, yea, and to allow our belief to influence our practice, whenever there is a sufficiency of testimony? And will not this, our capacity of believing, demonstrated as it is by facts of daily occurrence, justify our condemnation, if we fail to put faith in the declarations of Scripture? In like manner, if God demand from us gratitude and love, does He demand what we are unable to give? On the contrary, we are so constituted that we naturally feel thankful to a benefactor; and any one of us who could receive kindness, and yet show himself void of all affection towards the giver, would make himself an object of scorn and abhorrence, as wanting the

common sensibilities which characterise our nature. If, then, God manifestly bring Himself into the position of a benefactor, it is very evident that He has right to ask from us in return gratitude and love; that in asking them He only asks what we continually prove ourselves able to give, and that, consequently, if we refuse what is asked of us, there will be needed nothing beyond our conduct in the several intercourses of life to prove us without excuse, if finally condemned for not giving God our hearts. And once more--if God asks obedience to His laws and submission to His authority, He asks only what we are in the daily habit of rendering to earthly superiors. He may surely appeal to our conduct in reference to earthly magistrates, as proving us without excuse if we wilfully violate His laws. Thus our text involves a principle of very general application; and we perhaps little think what material of condemnation we heap up against ourselves by the conscientious discharge of every relative duty, whilst we remain virtually strangers to the power of religion. Now, I have thus engaged you with the general argument, rather than with the particular case presented by the text. Now, however, we will confine ourselves to that case, the case being that of parents and children, and the implied argument, that the reverence which we show to our earthly father will be a swift witness against us, if we fail in the reverence which is due to our heavenly Father. There is no more beautiful and graceful affection of our nature than that which subsists between parents and children. We must admire this affection, even as exhibited amongst inferior animals. There is no page in natural history more attractive than that which tells how tenderly the wild beasts of the forest will watch their young, or with what assiduousness the fowls of the air will tend their helpless brood. And in the human race the affection goes far beyond this; for if not more intense at the first, it is abiding and reciprocal. And this affection of a parent for a child is not merely a graceful and beautiful sentiment, shedding a charm over the privacies of domestic life; it is one of the chief mainsprings of human activity, and contributes perhaps more than anything else to the keeping together the elements of society. It is quite extraordinary, if you come to think, how this single affection or instinct will tie down a man to unwearied occupation, so that he will toil night and day to gain subsistence for his family. He might betake himself to another scene, where, having only himself to provide for, he might live in comparative ease; but his young ones have nestled round his heart; he cannot be tempted by any prospect of relief to desert those who lean on him as a father, and therefore, with a heroism which would draw on itself intense admiration if it were not so common, will he employ all his

energies, and wear down all his strength, in obtaining a sufficiency for those beneath his roof. Thus is society virtually knit together by and through the parental affection; and you have only to suppose this affection extinguished, so that fathers and mothers cared nothing, or only for a short time, for those to whom they gave life, and you destroy the fine play of a healthful activity, and slacken the bonds which make fast communities. And whilst parents are thus abidingly and profitably actuated by affection for their children, children maintain an affection towards their parents scarcely less graceful and scarcely less advantageous. This is not so much an instinct as a principle; and, accordingly, while the Bible contains no precept as to loving children, it contains a most express precept as to honouring parents, so that there is given to the latter the character of a high duty, to whose performance we are urged by a distinct and full promise. And the point to which I have to bring you is, that this duty is very generally and very faithfully performed. It is comparatively but seldom that children show want of affection towards a father and a mother, when that father and that mother have done their part as parents; whether it be in the highest or the lowest families of the land, there is generally a frank yielding to its heads of that respect and that gratitude which they have a right to look for from their offspring. There is no disputing the first statement of the text; for it is the general rule--“We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.” But how now as to the inference which St. Paul draws from this statement? How as to our subjection to another and a higher Father, “the Father of spirits”? If it be the common rule, the exceptions not being such as to bring the rule into question, that children give reverence to their fathers, surely, if God be a Father, He too will be reverenced. Once establish the relationship, and the reverence and submission will follow almost of course. Children! listen ye to this; parents! listen ye to this--children, who are never wanting in dutiful affection towards your parents; parents, who are never unmindful of what you have a right to look for from your children--children, who will do all in your power to soothe the declining years of a father or a mother, who feel it a privilege to pay back by labours of love the tenderness lavished on you from infancy upwards, who attach a sacredness to the every word and the every wish of persons so beloved and revered; parents, who feel cat to the heart by the ingratitude of a child, who are conscious of being robbed of your incontrovertible rights, whenever a son or a daughter is deficient in attachment and respect--yes, children and parents, listen ye alike to this; ye are self-condemned, ye are swift witnesses against

yourselves, if as members of the universal family ye fail to be what ye are as members of particular households; and oh! ye must be speechless at the judgment, if the simple “argument of our text should be worked out against you--if the Judge should say to you, “Ye had fathers of your flesh, and ye gave them reverence,” and should follow this up by the thrilling and unanswerable question, “Why, then, were ye not in subjection to the Father of spirits, that ye might live?” I do not know whether you have been accustomed to follow for yourselves such trains of thought as the words of our text have thus led us to open; but we own that we regard the subject which has been under discussion as one of no common importance and interest, presenting, as it does, all that is amiable and admirable in domestic life as fraught with testimony to be delivered at the great day of assize. Is there the merchant amongst you of unimpeachable rectitude, who would sooner die than be guilty of a fraud? Why, that man’s ledger is one of the books that shall be opened at the judgment; the hatred of everything base which it displays will be a witness against him if he have robbed God of His due. Is there the tradesman who would abhor the overreaching a customer, whom nothing could persuade to use the false weight and balance? Why, that man’s shop will be referred to hereafter; it will prove him rigidly conscientious towards his fellow-men, and therefore self-condemned if he have defrauded his God. Or is there a patriot, who, with a fine love of liberty, would do and dare nobly to uphold the free institutions of his country? That man’s generous ardour will be quoted hereafter; could he be indignant against all lesser tyranny, and yet be excusable in making no struggle against the tyranny of sin? Is there the son or the daughter amongst you who has shown reverence to parents? That man or that woman will have nothing to plead when God shall affirm Himself to be a Father, but a Father neglected by His children. Or are there servants amongst you who answer the apostle’s description--“Obedient to their own masters, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity”? Their unblemished characters will rise against them at the judgment; so true to their employers, what shall be said for them if false to their Maker? Ah, it may sound strangely, but, nevertheless, we may confidently assert that virtues, the want of which must exclude us from heaven, may themselves doom us to a lower place in hell. (H. Melvill, B. D.)The Fatherhood of God in the sufferings of life

This chapter contains one of the clearest expositions in the Bible of the Divine philosophy of suffering. In this chapter we trace two great convictions which,

when combined, form the apostle’s explanation of suffering--the belief in a Father, and the belief in His purpose to make man divinely glad. He does not attempt to explain this by any assertion of laws and penalties; he says nothing about inherited sin or transmitted judgment; his one solution is this--the Father is educating His child.

I. THE PURPOSE OF LIFE’S SUFFERINGS. II. GOD’S PURPOSE IN SUFFERING IS TO EDUCATE MAN THROUGH

HOLINESS INTO JOY. For the attainment of this end two things are requisite1. The vision of a higher world. It is manifest that unless we are delivered

from the thraldom of the present world, we cannot resist its temptations or escape its snares. Until we realise the world of God and the angels, we can reach no true holiness. And for this the discipline of sorrow fits us. It isolates us from the turmoil of the present, and opens the spirit’s eye.

2. Divine power is the second requisite for the full attainment of this joy. Until we are strong, we cannot be “partakers of His holiness.” We become strong by self-surrender, for self-surrender is self-control. We must glance at the practical lesson which is here suggested, “Shall we not be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?” The question arises, How can this be realised? In three ways

The proper view and improvement of afflictionI. THE LIGHT IN WHICH AFFLICTION OUGHT TO BE VIEWED BY

CHRISTIANS. 1. As coming from God. 2. As merited by our sins, 3. As the effect of fatherly wisdom and love. 4. With a desire that His gracious design may be fulfilled in us.

II. THE TENDENCY WHICH AFFLICTION HAS TO BENEFIT US. “That we may be partakers of His holiness.” Now the way in which affliction tends to produce this great end is

1. By giving us a just idea, giving us a practical impression, of the evil of sin. 2. Affliction tends to convince us of the insufficiency of the present world. 3. Submission to the will of God. 4. Sympathy. 5. Affliction weans us from the world, and fixes our thoughts on another state.

Lessons: 1. Let the afflicted derive comfort.

2. Let those who have been afflicted seriously consider what has been the effect of their trials upon themselves. If no effect has been produced, what can they expect but “sorrow upon sorrow”? (R. Hall, M. A.)

Afflictions salutaryI have read of a mariner who got tossed by the storm, lost his reckoning, and

was driven he knew not whither by the raging winds and darkness and danger. But when all was calm and clear he found he was actually nearer home than he could possibly have been under ordinary circumstances. Shall not I be glad, when my night of storm and trial is past, to find (which I think I shall) that I am nearer God and heaven than I should otherwise have been? (Geo. Brazier.)The profitableness of chastisements:

Absalom sends once or twice to Joab to come and speak with him; but when he saw that he could not come, he commands his corn-field to be set on fire and so he fetched him with a witness; so children of God, when they stand off upon terms, and will not see His face, the fire of affliction will make them seek Him early and diligently. It is the custom of our gallants, when their horses be slow and dull, to spur them up. If iron grows rusty, we put it into the fire to purify it, and so doth God; in our backwardness to duties, He pricks us on, or, being in our filthiness, casts us into the hot embers of tribulation to purify us. (John Barlow.)Suffering advantageous:

There is a great want in those Christians that have not suffered. (R. M. McCheyne.)Afflictions salutary:

Bitter pills bring sweet health, and sharp winter kills worms and weeds, and mellows the earth for better bearing of fruits and flowers. The lily is sowed in its own tears, and God’s vines bear the better for bleeding. The walnut-tree is most fruitful when most beaten; and camomile, the more you tread it the more you spread it. Aloes kill worms, and stained clothes are whitened by frosting. (J. Trapp.)The Father of spirits:

Men are not animals plus a soul, but spirits with an animal nature. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)Submission

John Newton said he would rather be able to pronounce these three sentences in his mother tongue from his heart than be master of all the languages of Europe: “What Thou wilt; when Thou wilt; how Thou wilt.”

Gratitude for afflictionA lady, from injuries received in a railway accident, had to keep her bed in

much pain and suffering for tong weary months. Upon the anniversary of the accident she gathered some of her most intimate friends into her room, and there, still a prisoner to her bed, she held a meeting of praise, counting up all the mercies of her year of sickness. (Mrs. Reaney.)Subjection to God

A lady one day, in her husband’s absence from home, lost two children by cholera; but she laid them out with a mother’s tenderness, and spread a sheet over them, and waited at the door for her husband’s return. “A person lent me some jewels,” she said, when she met him, “and he now wishes to receive them again; what shall I do?” “Return them, by all means,” said her husband. Then she led the way, and silently uncovered to him the forms of his dear children. (C. Leach.)The accepted will of God:

When Dr. Bushnell was dying, his wife repeated to him, slightly transposing the words of the text, “The good and perfect and accepted will of God.” He replied, “Yes, and accepted.” (Bushnell’s Life.)Father teaches me:

Passing through a narrow street in an old town, under the shadow of an equally old church, with its tall spire pointing heavenward, a woman hurries on her way to the station with a troubled heart and a load of care, none the less heavy that it is more worry than trouble. Two little mites of children, happy and merry-looking, are peering over their school-lessons. She catches the words of one as she passes, spoken with the ring of a child’s loving pride, “Father teaches me”; and then comes the answer from the other child, “How nice to have a father to teach you!” with an emphasis on the name which showed that she knew something, small though she was, of what a father’s love and teaching might and should mean. The woman’s face brightened as she heard, and she turned with a grateful smile to the two little ones, pausing to look at them for a minute before she went hurrying on again. And as she went her face kept its brighter look, for she thought to herself, “Surely, many beside that little child can say, ‘Father teaches me.’”

That we might be partakers of His holinessThe benefit of afflictions

I. THE LIGHT IN WHICH AFFLICTIONS OUGHT TO RE VIEWED, AND THE DISPOSITION WITH WHICH THEY OUGHT TO BE RECEIVED.

II. CONSIDER THEIR TENDENCY, WHEN THUS VIEWED AND RECEIVED, TO PROMOTE OUR SPIRITUAL INTEREST. “That we might be partakers of His holiness”; that is, of the holiness which He requires. Holiness consists in conformity to the will of God. Afflictions have a tendency to promote the great work.

1. They teach you the evil nature of sin, on account of which they are sent, and point you to the Saviour. Practical lessons are the best of all lessons.

2. The utter insufficiency of this world, as a portion for the soul. In days of prosperity you may not be thoroughly convinced of this.

3. Afflictions excite and increase some of the most amiable and pious dispositions of the human heart. Such as resignation and patience.

4. When viewed in their true light, and received with a proper spirit, they are most satisfactory proofs of the love of God.

Remarks: 1. In the light of this subject we see the reason why so many instances of

affliction fail to produce any good and lasting effect. The agency of God is not acknowledged in them.

2. This subject furnishes solemn reproof and warning to such as have experienced affliction, and yet have not repented.

3. This subject affords instruction and peculiar encouragement to Christians. Those who wear the white robes in heaven came out of great tribulation. (John Matthews, D. D.)

Sanctified affliction:The following is from a letter of John Frederic Obeilin, pastor of Waldbech, to a

lady, who had suffered many bereavements: “I have before me two stones, which are in imitation of precious stones. They are both perfectly alike in colour; they are of the same water--clear, pure, and clean; yet there is a marked difference between them as to their lustre and brilliancy. One has a dazzling brightness, while the other is dull, so that the eye passes over it, and derives no pleasure from the sight. What can be the reason of such a difference? It is this. The one is cut but in a few facets; the other has ten times as many. These facets are produced by a very violent operation. Nevertheless, the operations being over, it is done for ever: the difference between the two stones always remains strongly

marked. That which has suffered but little is entirely eclipsed by the other, which alone is held in estimation, and attracts attention. The profit of adversity:

Surely we deceive ourselves to think on earth continued joys would please. It is a way that crosses that which Nature goes. Nothing would be more tedious than to be glutted with perpetual jollities. Were the body tied to one dish always (though of the most exquisite flavour that it could make choice of), yet, after a small time, it would complain of loathing and satiety; and so would the soul, if it did ever epicure itself in joy. Discontents are sometimes the better part of our life. I know not well which is the more useful: joy I may choose for pleasure, but adversities, are the best for profit; and sometimes these do so far help me, as I should without them want much of the joy I have. (O. Feltham.)Sanctified affliction for the future:

It is not so much by the symmetry of what we attain in this life that we are to be made happy, as by the enlivening hope of what we shall reach in the world to come. While a man is stringing a harp, he tries the strings, not for music, but for construction. When it is finished it shall be played for melodies. God is fashioning the human heart for future joy. He only sounds a string here and there to see how far His work has progressed.(H. W. Beecher.)The father loved for correction:

On one occasion a minister found it necessary to punish his little daughter. But Mary climbed into his lap, and throwing her arms around his neck, said, “Papa, I do love you.” “Why do you love me?” the father asked. “Because you try to make me good, papa.” It is in this spirit that God’s people should accept the chastisements He sends, remembering that it is in love He rebukes and chastens; not for His pleasure, but for their profit, that they may be partakers of His holiness. Truth seen in adversity:

A diamond had slipped from its setting, and rolled away, none knew whither. Diligent search was made in every apartment where its owner might have been, but in vain. At length evening drew on, and, sitting in a careless mood, her eye caught the sparkle of a tiny ray, almost imperceptible, but bright as only a diamond’s glance can be. Out of the darkness it gleamed, and one might stoop and take that which daylight had failed to reveal, though sought with tears. And thus it is in the Christian’s experience. In the daylight of prosperity he seeks in vain for the precious presence of the Holy Spirit. Yet when the night of adversity

draws nigh, suddenly there shines a light amidst the darkness of spiritual despondency which reveals to him “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

Verse 11Hebrews 12:11

Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnessSweet fruit from a thorny tree:

When our heavenly Father “puts His hand into the bitter box” and weighs out to us a portion of wormwood and gall in the form of bodily pain, we very naturally ask the reason why.Nature suggests the question at times in petulance, and gets no answer; faith only asks it with bated breath, and gains a gracious reply.

I. PAIN TEACHES US OUR NOTHINGNESS. Health permits us to swell in self-esteem, and gather much which is unreal; sickness makes our feebleness conspicuous, and at the same time breaks up many of our shams. We need solid grace when we are thrown into the furnace of affliction; gilt and tinsel shrivel up in the fire. The patience in which we somewhat prided ourselves, where is it when sharp pangs succeed each other, like poisoned arrows setting the blood on flame? The joyful faith which could do all things, and bear all sufferings, is it always at hand when the time of trial has arrived? The peace which stood aloft on the mountain’s summit and serenely smiled on storms beneath, does it hold its ground quite so easily as we thought it would when at our ease we prophesied our behaviour in the day of battle? When nought remains but the clinging of a weeping child, who grasps his father’s hand; nothing but the smiting on the breast of the publican, who cries “God be merciful to me a sinner”; nought but the last resolve, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him”--no real loss has been sustained, say, rather, a great gain has come to the humbled heart.

II. HEAVY SICKNESS AND CRUSHING PAIN SHUT OUT FROM US A THOUSAND MINOR CARES. We cannot now be cumbered with much serving, for others must take our place, and play the Martha in our stead; and it is well if then we are enabled to take Mary’s place as nearly as possible, and lie at Jesus’ feet if we cannot sit there. The Lord must do all, or it must remain undone. The weary head could only exaggerate the need; the sinking spirits could not suggest a supply. All must be left; yes, must be left. The reins drop from the driver’s hands, the ploughman forgets the furrow, the seed-basket hangs no longer on the sewer’s arm. Thus is the soul shut in with God as within a wall of tire, and all

her thought must be of Him, and of His promise and His help; grateful if but such thoughts will come, and forced if they come not just to lie as one dead at the feet of the great Lord and look up and hope. This cutting loose from earthly shores, this rehearsal of what must soon be done once for all in the hour of departure, is a salutary exercise, tending to cut away the hampering besetments of this mortal life, and make us freer for the heavenly race.

III. SICKNESS HAS CAUSED MANY WORKERS TO BECOME MORE INTENSE WHEN THEY HAVE AGAIN BEEN FAVOURED TO RETURN TO THEIR PLACE. We lie and bemoan our shortcomings, perceiving fault where it had in healthier hours escaped observation, resolving, in God’s strength, to throw our energies more fully into the weightiest matters, and spend less of force on secondary things. How much of lasting good may come of this! The time, apparently wasted, may turn out to be a real economy of life if the worker for years to come shall be more earnest, more careful, more prayerful, more passionately set upon doing his Lord’s business thoroughly. Oh that we could all thus improve our forced retirements! Then should we come forth like the sun from the chambers of the east, all the brighter for the night’s chill darkness, while about us would be the dew of the Spirit, and the freshness of a new dawning.

IV. PAIN, IF SANCTIFIED, CREATES TENDERNESS TOWARDS OTHERS. Alone it may harden and shut up the man within himself, a student of his own nerves and ailments, a hater of all who would pretend to rival him in suffering; but, mixed with grace, our aches and pains are an ointment supplying the heart, and causing the milk of human kindness to fill the breast. The poor are tender to the poor, and the sick feel for the sick when their afflictions have wrought after a healthful fashion. Grief has been full oft the mother of mercy, and the pangs of sickness have been the birth-throes of compassion. If our hearts learn sympathy, they have been in a good school, though the Master may have used the rod most heavily, and taught us by many a smart.

V. PAIN HAS A TENDENCY TO MAKE US GRATEFUL WHEN HEALTH RETURNS. We value the powers of locomotion after tossing long upon a bed from which we cannot rise, the open air is sweet after the confinement of the chamber, food is relished when appetite returns, and in all respects the time of recovery is one of marked enjoyment. As birds sing most after their winter’s silence, when the warm spring has newly returned, so should we be most praiseful when our gloomy hours are changed for cheerful restoration. Gratitude is a choice spice for heaven’s altar. It burns well in the censer, and sends up a

fragrant cloud, acceptable to the great High Priest. Perhaps God would have lost much praise if His servant had not much suffered. Sickness thus yields large tribute to the King’s revenue; and if it be so, we may cheerfully endure it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)The effects of sorrow

It is of sorrow I would speak. None can escape it. A man unacquainted with suffering would be a monstrous exception. You have doubtless seen the famous painting of a modern artist, “The Call of the Condemned, during the Reign of Terror.” The prisoners, already sentenced by the revolutionary tribunal, are there, huddled up together in the vast hall and beneath the low arches of the Conciergerie. In the background, the door stands open, and the jailer, behind whom the fatal chariot is visible, reads the names written upon the list of death. All listen; some have already risen and press the hands of their friends in a farewell grasp; others, whose countenance is ghastly and full of anguish, wait; others veil their feelings beneath stoical scorn; they seem to say, “To-day or to-morrow, what matters? It is but a question of time.” Thus it is with each of us; we are doomed to suffer; none of us is forgotten on the roll of the elect of affliction. Well! here is a strange fact: this question of suffering, the most universal and individual, the most ancient and actual of all questions, remains one of those which natural reason is absolutely incompetent to elucidate. Interrogate the ancient world, the Greek or Roman societies with their most illustrious philosophers, and you will find that every one of them, in presence of suffering, has but one of two counsels to give man: dissipation with Epicurus, or indifference with the stoic Zeno. I cannot, however, forget that some few more clear-sighted souls have seen in affliction a mysterious instrument of Providence, a means of education for man; but these were only stray gleams, like flashes of lightning illumining the darkness of ancient philosophy. This is what Seneca writes to a mother who had lost her son by death: “Prejudice, which causes us to mourn so long, leads us further than nature commands. See how vehement are the regrets of dumb animals, yet how short is their duration! Cows that have lost their offspring moan but two or three days; mares pursue their wild and wandering course no longer. When the savage beast has followed the traces of her young and scoured the forest in every direction, when she has returned time after time to the den ravaged by the hunter, her fierce grief is very soon appeased. The bird that whirls with startling cry round her empty nest is quieted in an instant, and resumes her wonted flight. No animal long regrets its young;

man alone loves to nurse his sorrow, and grieves, not by reason of what he feels, but in proportion as he has determined to grieve” (“Consolation to Marcia,” ch. 7.). Having read this page, open the gospel and, with adoration, acknowledge the debt of gratitude you owe to Jesus Christ. According to Holy Writ, suffering is neither a simply natural phenomenon nor an effect of the primordial will of the Creator. According to Scripture it is an anomaly. God did not ordain it; in the beginning God beheld His work, and lo, it was good. Suffering is the logical, inevitable consequence of the false relation in which man has placed himself with God (Hosea 14:2). But, if Scripture lays down this grand general principle that suffering is the consequence of sin, it affirms, none the less clearly, that in our earthly life sin and suffering are never fully equivalent; it forbids our drawing from exceptional affliction the inference of exceptional guilt; it interdicts our taking the Divine balance into our own hands and interpreting the judgments of God according to our imperfect knowledge of things. Such, in a few words, is the teaching of Scripture on what we might call the theoretical side of the problem of suffering. But if, looked at in this light, this teaching appears to us measured and limited; everything changes when we look at it from a practical point of view. Here light abounds: when we endeavour to demonstrate the providential action of suffering, its salutary effects upon souls, the various and often sublime ends to which God makes it serve, we feel that lessons gush forth from every detail, and that we are verily at the school of the Divine Educator. Let us, first of all, lay down a principle: Suffering in itself is not good. Suffering is what we make it. It can produce humiliation or revolt, it regenerates the heart or renders it a thousand times more vile; it is the pensive and gentle angel that brings us back to the true life, or the demon that beholds with a cynical sneer the nothingness of all hope; it causes the sacred source of repentant sorrow to gush forth, or, like a consuming fire, it parches and withers in the depth of the soul all the germs of the future. It is blessed or accursed, it raises to a new life or it kills. The two wretches agonising upon Calvary, one on Christ’s right hand and one on His left, are both crucified, but the one believes whilst the other blasphemes; the one repents whilst the other hardens his heart. In consequence, the point to be solved is, not only if we suffer, but if we accept affliction as coming from God. For those who bear suffering in this spirit I would show what it may be and what are the fruits it may yield. In the first place, I say that affliction gives us a fuller understanding of religious truth, Not that it teaches us anything which is absolutely new, but it makes realities of those beliefs which are often in danger of being considered

by.us as pure abstractions. You will be convinced of this if, for a moment, you examine the notion which sorrow gives us of God, of others, and of ourselves. As regards the truth concerning God. For many God exists only as a cardinal notion, in truth, but as a mere notion nevertheless. What is required that He may reveal Himself to such, as a living and present Being, that truly religious faith may be joined, henceforth, to purely intellectual faith? A profound thinker (Schleier-reacher) has told us, Man must feel that he is dependent upon Him. Religion comes into existence together with the sentiment of dependence. Now, what is most sure of producing this sentiment within us? Affliction. Just as the darkness of night unveils to our gaze the splendours of the starry heavens, even so it is in the gloom of trial, in that night of the soul, that the eye of faith most clearly discerns the glories of Divine love. As regards the truth concerning men. This demands no proof. At all times it has been said: We know men only when we have suffered. As regards the truth concerning ourselves. Does a man know himself when he has not suffered? Does he take a serious view of evil when he has not felt its pangs? Can he have a correct idea of his weakness when he has not been vanquished? If death is the wages of sin, suffering is its humiliating earnest, and we may well discern in it the cruel effigy of the master to whom we have sold ourselves. Therefore affliction gives us a fuller understanding of the truths concerning ourselves, our fellow-men, and God. It does more, it acts upon conscience, it subdues the will. Would the idolatrous Canaanite ever have thought of coming to Christ if her heart had not been rent by the fearful spectacle of her demon-possessed daughter?

Would Jairus, ruler of the synagogue, have called the Saviour if he had not seen his child in the agony of death? Count those who followed Jesus during His ministry upon earth, question the innumerable multitudes which compose His retinue throughout the ages, and you will see that most of His disciples went to Him because they suffered. And as suffering has begun the work of their salvation, it serves also to continue and perfect it. Without it, pride, self-will, guilty passion would spring up again like vivacious roots, but the hand of the Divine husbandman passes and cuts them off, and the sap of life, which would spread with so much vigour in wrong directions, is forced to rise and spread itself out in holy affections. Thirdly, I have indicated the action of suffering upon the heart. We must consider this side of our subject for a few moments. There is a fact which we may observe daily; it is this: when a man is for the first time smitten with disease, for the first time also he thinks that others suffer like himself; this is

for him a sort of discovery; he knew the name of the disease which lays him low, but he did not really believe in its existence. We have heard of deaf and blind individuals, of persons who have suddenly become poor; we have felt for them a sincere sentiment of superficial commiseration, but if we are unexpectedly threatened with one or other of these terrible trials, then the image of those whom it has before smitten starts up before our eyes, we are surprised to find they are so many, we reproach ourselves with having too long ignored them. From this experience flows sympathy, that Divine sentiment which signifies that we suffer with others, and which has become the mightiest power of consolation the world has ever known. It is to the afflicted that God has entrusted the sublime mission of consolation; the terms widow and deaconess originally signified one and the same thing, and, in the order of joy, as in the order of mercy, it is the prerogative of the poor that they are called to enrich others. What is it, in reality, that has produced the Church and transformed the world? A unique, incomparable, inexpressible grief which has found its consummation in the sacrifice of the Cross. Finally, I have said that affliction is the means which God makes use of to awaken and entertain within us the sacred life of hope. Hope is that virtue of the soul by which we affirm that the future belongs to God. Christian hope lies not at the soul’s surface, it dwells in its innermost depths, and appears, radiant and strong, in the hour when all things fail us. Now, is it not evident that hope is the daughter of affliction? It is not those that are satisfied who hope. Those that are satisfied find their reward here below, as Jesus Christ tells Matthew 5:5-16), and that is the manifest sign of their condemnation. See the Jewish nation under the old dispensation: two nations mingle in this one nation. Throughout the history of the Church I find these two nations; if the Church is still standing, if she has not died, dishonoured by the ostentation, pride, and pollution of her representatives on the earth, by so many crimes perpetrated in the name of Jesus Christ, we owe it to those of her children who from age to age have maintained the sacred tradition of voluntary suffering and of sacrifice, and who have never ceased to expect the reign of God in righteousness and in truth. There exists, in the Roman Catholic religion, an institution which has always impressed me strongly: it is what is called perpetual adoration: in certain monastic orders, nuns relieve one another day and night, so that there are continually some praying before the Holy Sacrament. (E. Bersier, D. D.)Chastisement--now and afterwards

I. First, we have very clearly in the text SOME CHASTISEMENTS.

1. Keeping literally to the words of the text, we observe that all which carnal reason can see of our present chastisement is but seeming. “No chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.” All that flesh and blood can discover of the quality of affliction is but its outward superficial appearance. We are not able by the eye of reason to discover what is the real virtue of sanctified tribulation; this discernment is the privilege of faith. How very apt we are to be deceived by seemings! Understand that all that you can know about trial by mere carnal reason is no more reliable than what you can discover by your feelings concerning the motion of the earth. Nor are our seemings at all likely to be worth much when you recollect that our fear, when we are under trouble, always darken, what little reason we have. I remember one so nervous that, when going up the Monument, he assured me that he felt it shake. It was his own shaking, not the shaking of the Monument; but he was timid at climbing to an unusual height. When you and I under trial get so afraid of this and afraid of that that we cannot trust the eyesight of the flesh, we may rest assured of this, that “ things are not what they seem.” Besides, we are very unbelieving, and you know how unbelief is apt always to exaggerate the black and to diminish the bright. Added to this, over and above our unbelief there is a vast amount of ignorance, and ignorance is always the mother of dismay and consternation. In the ignorant times in this country men were always trembling at their own superstitions.

2. The text shows us that carnal reason judgeth afflictions only “for the present.” “No chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous.” It judges in the present light, which happens to be the very worst in which to form a correct estimate. Suppose that I am under a great tribulation to-day--let it be a bodily affliction--the head is aching, the mind is agitated, am I in a fit state then to judge the quality of affliction with a distracted brain?

3. This brings me to observe that since carnal reason only sees the seeming of the thing, and sees even that in the pale light of the present, therefore affliction never seemeth to be joyous. If affliction seemed to be joyous, would, it be a chastisement at all?

4. Nay, more, the text assures us that every affliction seemeth to be grievous. Perhaps to the true Christian, who is much grown in grace, the most grievous part of the affliction is this. “Now,” saith he, “I cannot see the

benefit of it; if I could I would rejoice. Instead of doing good, it really seems to do harm.” “Such a brother has been taken away just in the midst of his usefulness,” cries the bereaved friend. A wife says, “My dear husband was called away just when the children needed most his care.”

5. But now let me add that all this is only seeming. Faith triumphs in trial. There is a subject for song even in the smarts of the rod. For, first, the trial is not as heavy as it might have been; next, the trouble is not so severe as it ought to have been, and certainly the affliction is not so terrible as the burden which others have to carry.

II. We have spoken of sore afflictions; well, now, next we have BLESSED FRUIT-BEARING.

1. I want you to notice the word which goes before the fruit bearing part of the text. “No chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless.” Now what does that mean? That this fruit-bearing is not natural--it is not the natural effect of affliction. Trials breed discontent, anger, envy, rebellion, enmity, murmuring, and a thousand other ills; but God overruleth and makes the very thing which would make

Christians worse to minister unto their growth in holiness and spirituality. It is not the natural fruit of affliction, but the supernatural use to which God turns it in bringing good out of evil.

2. And then observe that this fruit is not instantaneous. “Nevertheless,” what is the next word?” Afterwards.” Many believers are deeply grieved because they do not at once feel that they have been profited by their afflictions. Well, you do not expect to see apples or plums on a tree which you have planted but a week.

3. Well, now, you will note in the text a sort of gradation with regard to what affliction does afterwards. “It brings forth fruit”; that is one step. That fruit is “the fruit of righteousness”; here is an advance. That righteous fruit is “peaceable”; this is the best of all.

III. And now for the third point, and that is FAVOURED SONS. “Nevertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness in them which are exercised thereby.” It is not every Christian who gets a blessing from affliction, at least, not from every affliction that he has. I conceive that the last words are inserted by way of distinction--“those that are exercised thereby.” You know there are some of the Lord’s children who, when they get a trouble, are not exercised by it, because they run away from it. There are others who, when under trouble,

are callous and do not yield; they bear it as a stone would bear it; the Lord may give or take away, they are equally senseless; they look upon it as the work of blind fate, not as the fruit of that blessed predestination which is ruled by a Father’s hand. They get no benefit from tribulation; it never enters into them, they are not exercised by it. Now, you know what the word “exercised” means. In the Greek gymnasium the training master would challenge the youths to meet him in combat. He knew how to strike, to guard, to wrestle. Many severe blows the young combatants received from him, but this was a part of their education, preparing them at some future time to appear publicly in the games. He who shirked the trial and declined the encounter with the trainer received no good from him, even though he would probably be thoroughly well flogged for his cowardice. The youth whose athletic frame was prepared for future struggles was he who stepped forth boldly to be exercised by his master. If you see afflictions come, and sit down impatiently, and will not be exercised by your trials, then you do not get the peaceable fruit of righteousness; but if, like a man, you say, “Now is my time of trial, I will play the man; wake up my faith to meet the foe; take hold of God; stand with firm foot and slip not; let all my graces be aroused, for here is something to be exercised upon”; it is then that a man’s bone and sinew and muscle all grow stronger. (C. H. Spurgeon.)The good fruits of afflictions

I. WHAT ARE THOSE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH THE DIVINE CHASTENINGS ARE SENT TO PRODUCE.

1. The mortification of our sinful lusts. 2. A more warm and active zeal and diligence in all the great duties of life and

religion. 3. Another good fruit of affliction is manifest in the visible growth and

improvement of those particular virtues and graces in which we have been too deficient.

II. WHY THESE ARE CALLED THE PEACEABLE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

1. Because they will help us to bear afflictions with the most quiet and peaceable temper of mind whilst we are under them.

2. Because they give it an habitual peace and serenity afterwards, III. WHO THEY ARE ON WHOM AFFLICTIONS HAVE THIS HAPPY EFFECT.

1. It is most certain that all who are under afflictions do not receive benefit by them.

2. It is not every good man that reaps all those advantages by his afflictions I before mentioned.

3. The meaning is that the Divine discipline has this design and tendency, that afflictions are in their own nature a powerful expedient to reform the mind and make the heart better, and to procure the greatest spiritual benefit to those who are exercised thereby. And

4. That they actually have this effect upon those who take a proper care to improve them. They take effect the same way that all other means do, that is, by being carefully used, attended to, and improved by us.

IV. WHAT IS NECESSARY ON OUR PART TO PROCURE THESE HAPPY FRUITS OF AFFLICTION, or in what manner we are to behave that they may actually yield to us the peaceable fruits of righteousness whenever we are exercised thereby.

1. The first thing necessary on our part in order to improve affliction is serious thought or deep self-reflection.

2. A constant watchfulness under our afflictions is equally necessary to our receiving real good from them.

3. Another means to get good by afflictions is frequent and persevering prayer.

Conclusion: 1. We hence learn that it is a great mistake to think, as some good Christians

are ready to do, that all afflictions are sent in a way of anger, and are tokens of God’s.

2. From what hath been said upon this subject we may distinctly see what it is to have afflictions sanctified. Afflictions are then sanctified, and then only, when they increase our love to God, our humility, our patience, our faith, resignation, and heavenly-mindedness.

3. What reason have we to adore the wisdom and goodness of our heavenly Father in laying His children under those afflicting dispensations which are necessary to their true interest?

4. What hath been said may tend to prepare us to meet the future sufferings of life and teach us how to bear them.

5. How little reason have we to he very fond of a world so subject to vicissitude, anxiety, and sorrow! (John Mason, M. A.)

Beating out the air bubbles:

The first time I went to a potter’s house was in a very remote part of the Southern States. I do not know that what I witnessed there was a fair sample of the ruder forms of pottery, but I judge it was. I had never seen a vessel shaped on the wheel before, and I asked the potter to let me see him make one. He took a little lump of clay, but instead of putting it immediately on the wheel, he took it in one hand and began to give it very heavy blows with his fist. I almost thought he was angry with the poor clay before him, and I said, “What are you doing with it? I thought you were going to make a vessel.” “So I am, when I get it ready. I am getting the air bubbles out of it. If I were to put it on the wheel as it is, it would be spoiled ill a few moments. One of those little bubbles would mar all my work. So I beat it and beat it, and in this way get all the air out of it.” Ah! I thought, so does God have to treat us. The great difficulty with us is those little bubbles of self-conceit, of our own self-will, and sometimes of our self-righteousness--something that, in the process of God’s work, would wonderfully mar it. So He has to deal with us severely; but He is not angry with the poor clay before Him. He is not angry with us when He puts us through this process of adversity. He is only getting out of us all that would mar His blessed work. How wise it is, then, for us just to accept, with perfect simplicity, His will! The use of a clouded sky

A sky never clouded would cause a barren earth. (Good Words.)Experimental religion learned in sorrow:

Dr. Bushnell lost a son. When, a year or two after, he went into the country to preach for an old friend, the latter noticed an increased fervour in his preaching, and, in intimate talk, perhaps, alluded to it, when he said, earnestly, “I have learned more of experimental religion since my little boy died than in all my life before.” (Dr. Bushnell’s Life.)Now and afterwards:

So it must ever be. Day out of night, spring out of winter, flowers out of frost, joy out of sorrow, fruitfulness out of pruning, Olivet out of Gethsemane, the ascension out of Calvary, life out of death, and the Christ that is to be out of the pangs of a travailing creation. (F. B.Meyer, B. A.)Advantage of adversity:

Of Anna, Lady Hacket, it was said that as a ball when forcibly struck down rebounds the higher, so what had beaten down her worldly hopes raised her faith to a more steadfast persuasion that God, who is the Comforter of those who are cast down, would still be her God and guide unto death. (H. Clissold, M. A.)

Afflictions winning the heart for GodI have been all my life like a child whose father wishes to fix his undivided

attention. At first the child runs about the room, but his father ties up his feet; he then plays with his hands until they likewise are tied. Thus he continues to do, till he is completely tied up. Then, when he can do nothing else, he will attend to his father. Just so has God been dealing with me to induce me to place my happiness in Him alone. But I blindly continued to look for it here, and God has kept cutting off one source of enjoyment after another, till I find that I can do without them all, and yet enjoy more happiness than ever in my life before. (E. Payson.)Affliction sanctified

Ulrich Zwingle was a convinced reformer, and a self-denying pastor, before the plague broke out in Zurich, but that visitation was to him as life from the dead. He had returned hastily, while still an invalid, from a watering-place where he was seeking health, to minister to the dying, till struck down by the scourge himself; but when he rose again, it was with such a sight of spiritual things, and such a power of ministry, as he had never had before, so that two thousand of his fellow-citizens were soon after converted by his preaching. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)Uses of pain:

Robert Hall, although he had been admitted to membership in his father’s church at fourteen years of age, after “ a very distinct account of his being the subject of Divine grace,” believed that his moral transformation was effected much later by means of the terrible discipline of pain which interrupted his ministry, and even for a time unhinged his reason. “There can be no question that from this period he seemed more to live under the prevailing recollection of his entire dependence upon God, that his habits were more devotional than they had ever before been, his spiritual exercises more frequent and more elevated.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)Divine harmony out of discord

As musicians sometimes go through perplexing mazes of discord in order to come to the inexpressible sweetness of after chords, so men’s discords of trouble and chromatic jars, if God be their leader, are only preparing for a resolution into such harmonious strains as could never have been raised except upon such undertones, Most persons are more anxious to stop their sorrow than to carry it forward to its choral outburst. (H. W. Beecher.)Divine tuning:

Men think God is destroying them because He is tuning them. The violinist screws up the key till the tense cord sounds the concert pitch; but it is not to break it, but to use it tunefully, that he stretches the siring upon the musical rack. (H. W. Beecher.)The afterward of trial

The Rev. James Hog, of Carnock, an eminent minister, was long under deep mental distress. When he had lived in Holland for a considerable time, it pleased God unexpectedly to impart a great measure of light to his mind. “Oh, how sweet,” says he, “the light was to me, who had been shut up in a dark dungeon! for sometimes I could do nothing but cry, ‘Send out Thy light and Thy truth.’ After I had thus cried, not without some experience of a gracious answer, and expectation of more, I quickly found my soul brought out of prison, and breathing in a free and heavenly air; altogether astonished at the amazing mercy and grace of God.” The schemes of Providence but partially seen:

There is a striking passage in which a great philosopher, the famous Bishop Berkeley, describes the thought which occurred to him of the inscrutable schemes of Providence, as he saw in St. Paul’s Cathedral a fly moving on one of the pillars. “It requires,” he says, “some comprehension in the eye of an intelligent spectator to take in at one view the various parts of the building in order to observe their symmetry and design. But to the fly, whose prospect was confined to a little part of one of the stones of a single pillar, the joint beauty of the whole, or the distinct use of its parts, was inconspicuous. To that limited view the irregularities on the surface of the hewn stone seemed to be so many deformed rocks and precipices.” That fly on the pillar, of which the philosopher spoke, is the likeness of each human being as he creeps along the vast pillars which support the universe. The sorrow which appears to us nothing but a yawning chasm or hideous precipice may turn out to be but the joining or cement which binds together the fragments of our existence into a solid whole! That dark and crooked path in which we have to grope our way in doubt and fear may be but the curve which, in the full daylight of a brighter world, will appear to be the necessary finish of some choice ornament, the inevitable span of some majestic arch! (Dean Stanley.)After the tempest:

Keen students of nature, and especially of marine life in all its forms, often welcome the tempest, because after it they frequently get their choicest

specimens. In the journal of the late Dr. Coldstream it is thus written: “This morning, as the storm had subsided, I determined to go down to the sands of Leith, that I might revel in the riches that might have been cast up by the deep after the terrible storm.” So it is with believers; their very richest experiences and the choicest tokens of Divine favour are often got in and after their stormiest trials.

Verse 12-13Hebrews 12:12-13

Lift up the hands which hang downChristian compassion:

The words of the text are taken from Isaiah 35:3-4, and are addressed to the believing Hebrews as an admonition to comfort and encourage one another.The disheartened among them are compared to such as had been running in a race, or sustaining a protracted conflict till their knees began to tremble, and their hands to hang down: and in this condition, those who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.

I. NOTICE THE RELIGIOUS STATE OF THOSE WHO ANSWER TO THE DESCRIPTION GIVES IN THE TEXT. Were we to compare Christians in general of the present day with those of the first ages, it would appear that they are grown weak and faint. We have but little of the zeal and activity which characterised the primitive Church. The description, however, is more particularly applicable to certain individual cases and characters amongst us, who need the compassion of their brethren, under their various difficulties and discouragements.

1. Some are ready to faint under difficulties and troubles of a worldly nature. 2. Some are discouraged through distrust, and groundless fears of future ills. 3. Others are distressed not only with the difficulties of life, but from being

under the chastening hand of God. 4. Some are disheartened by repeated opposition from the enemies of

religion. 5. Some are greatly discouraged by inward conflicts, arising from the evil

propensities of their own hearts. 6. A departure from evangelical truth has weakened the strength of some by

the way, and left them shorn of their dignity and glory.

7. The despondency of some good people arises no doubt from a natural gloominess in their constitution, which disposes them to dwell on the dark side of every subject rather than on the other.

II. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER UNDER THESE DISCOURAGEMENTS. “Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.”

1. In order to perform this duty aright, it is necessary to exercise much tenderness and forbearance towards those who are labouring under great discouragements. Let the strong bear the infirmities of the weak, remembering that they are a part of the mystical body of Christ (1   Corinthians 12:21 ; 1   Corinthians 12:25 ). The compassionate tenderness of the great Shepherd of the flock is left as a pattern for our imitation (Isaiah 40:11;Matthew 12:20).

2. Another way in which our compassion may be exercised is to point out to one another the directions and consolations of the gospel, according as the case may require; and here the tongue of the learned is necessary to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

3. Let us be concerned to remove the stumbling-block out of the way, and so to “make straight paths for their feet.”

Let us learn from hence: 1. That all our difficulties and discouragements in the ways of God arise from

ourselves, and from the evil that is in the world. His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace.

2. How lovely and how interesting is Christian society, whose object it is to strengthen and encourage each other in the way to heaven; and how wretchedly defective must it be, if it has not this tendency!

3. How essential to the Christian character are brotherly kindness, charity, and a disinterested but affectionate concern for the spiritual and everlasting welfare of our fellow-Christians! (Theological Sketch Book.)

Of conquering discouragements:Hands which hang down--that is the gesture of discouragement. Gesture

addresses itself to the eye. Articulate speech addresses itself to the ear. Both tell the thoughts, feelings, purposes of the inner spirit. Consider

I. WHY DISCOURAGEMENT SOMETIMES IS. 1. Ill health is a very frequent reason for a discouraged mood.

2. Necessary reaction from a great strain is a frequent reason for discouragement.

3. The slighter disappointments of life in most real way shadow the spirits. There are days when the sky wears a steadily disappointing grey, and when an east wind of discouragement blows steadily through all its hours.

4. The haunting fear that in some great matter which vitally affects us we have made mistake is a frequent cause of discouragement.

5. Hostile circumstances are causes of discouragement. 6. A frequent cause of spiritual discouragement is allowed sin. We talk about

the hiding of God’s face from us. Oftener we have ourselves hidden ourselves from God by doing what we know He cannot smile on.

II. SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH WE MAY TRIUMPH OVER THIS SO COMMON MOOD OF DISCOURAGEMENT. And we must triumph over discouragement. If we do not triumph over it, it will triumph over us. And no man can be well or do well who is in the perpetual gloom of a shadowed heart. “It is safe to say that no great enterprise was ever yet inaugurated, sustained, or completed in any other spirit than that of hope. The Suez Canal was not built, nor the ocean cable laid, nor the great war of a quarter of a century ago brought to a successful termination by men who were easily discouraged.” All these undertakings, and all undertakings of any sort, must have their root in hope. There are two ways of conquering the discouragement.

1. By the law of opposites. For example, if one finds himself shadowed by ill health, he will increase both his ill health and the shadows which it casts by perpetual thought of it and constant attention to its symptoms. The way is, as far as possible, to front health, and in all right ways to determine to reach it. The man who persistently thinks toward sickness is the man who will gather about himself the gloom of sickness. The man who persistently thinks toward health is the man who will soonest get both into it and into its sunshine. I read once of a woman who said that she always went through at least two hours of worry and despondency about her trials, and when she had cried until she had a wet handkerchief spread out to dry on every chair in the room, she thought she might cheer up a little, but she never expected to be happy in this life. “Why,” she said, “if I were happy I should think I had lost all my religion.” Too often such is the Christian notion. But God wants us to be happy; and the way out of the gloom of petty disappointments is by thought of Him and our many blessings. For

example again: Nobody need be discouraged by sin, if only one will repent of it. “There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.”

2. Also, we can overcome discouragement by the law of faith. One tells how, in his youth, he and a young companion became lost in the maze at Hampton Court; they wandered about tired and discouraged, but they felt sure that they would find their way out presently, and they thought it would seem foolish to ask direction, though they saw an old man working not far off. They utterly failed, however, in getting out, and at last came to ask the old man if he could possibly tell them the path out of the maze. “Why,” he answered, “that is just what I am here for. Why did not you say you wanted to get out before?” And he put the young men at once on the right track. And that is what our Lord Jesus is for. The steady asking of Him and the following of His directions will deliver from many of life’s mazes and from its gloom. (W. Hoyt, D. D.)

Encouraging others:At the battle of Five Forks, a soldier, wounded under his eyes, stumbled and

was falling to the rear, when General Sheridan cried, “Never mind, my man; there’s no harm done.” And the soldier went on with a bullet in his brain until tie dropped dead on the field. (H. O.Mackey.)Stimulating the discouraged:

Arago ascribes his success to words found on the paper cover of his book when greatly discouraged. They were, “Go on, sir; go on! The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increased clearness on your path,” written by D’Alembcrt. “That maxim,” says Arago, “was my greatest master in mathematics.” Following out these simple words, “Go on, sir; go on!” made him the first astronomical mathematician of his age. What Christians it would make of us! What heroes of faith, what sages in holy wisdom, should we become, by acting out that maxim, “Go on, sir; go on!” The joy of sympathy:

Happy is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp is of its own shining. Such a one moves on human life as stars move on dark seas to bewildered

mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the south. (H. W. Beecher.)

Make straight paths for your feetThe Christian’s footprints

I. THE CHRISTIAN’S CORRECT WALK. Beasts, birds, and fishes make different tracks, and in a museum you will find specimens of each in the rocks which have been strata of the earth, made probably before the creation of man. And we do not have to ask which were tracks of birds or quadrupeds--it is evident. And if, in the future, somebody should find your footprints, will they be tracks of a worldling or a Christian? “He left half a million when he died,” it will be said of one. “He turned many to righteousness,” it will be said of another. Ah! that is a Christian’s track. “He toiled to destroy the works of the devil.” “He gave his goods to feed the poor.” There is one Example--Christ. He never swerved a single iota. Straight as the path of a sunbeam was His journey from the footstool to the throne.

II. THE CHRISTIAN’S HELPFUL INFLUENCE. HOW tenderly the Lord cares for the lame! You are strong, and have no need to be afraid of rough places; but perchance there is a weak and crippled brother coming after you, who will stumble and fall where you tread firmly. Think of him, and act accordingly. A father, climbing up a steep and precipitous cliff at a summer watering-place, says that, to his astonishment, he heard his little boy calling out behind him, “Take a safe path, father, for I am coming after you.” What was safe for the strong nerves and sturdy strength of the father, might be exceedingly perilous for the weak and unpractised step of the child. Therefore, the father must “make straight paths for his feet,” &c. It is a lesson running through all life and conduct. (A. J. Gordon, D. D.)Lame sheep:

There are some believers of strong and vigorous faith. Fleet of foot, they can run and not be weary, or with steady progress they can walk, and not faint. But all are not so highly privileged. I suppose there is seldom a family which has no sickly member.

I. IN GOD’S FLOCK WHERE ARE ALWAYS SOME LAME SHEEP. There is a peril intimated here; “lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.” This is only too likely to happen. Lame sheep will commonly be found even in the tiniest flock. It will be necessary, then, to be tender of their infirmity. Some of these people of God who are compared to lame sheep seem to have been so from

their birth. It is in their constitution. Do you not know some friends of yours who naturally incline to despondency? For them the road is always rugged, the pastures unsavoury, and the waters turbid. You will find such unhappy souls in all our Churches; people who seem from their very conformation to be lame as to the matters of faith, and full of doubts and fears. Besides, have you never noticed a constitutional tendency in some professors to stumble and get lame? If there is a slough, they will fall into it; if there is a thicket, they will get entangled by it; if there is an error, they will run foul of it. Good people we trust they are, and they do believe in Jesus, but somehow or other they do not see things clearly. Can you not detect, too, some who are lame in point of character? They seen to have been so from their very birth. There is a something about their gait that is unsteady. With some it is a cross temper; with others it is a general moroseness, which it does not seem as if the grace of God itself would ever cure in them; or it may be a natural indolence oppresses them; or it is quite possible that habitual impatience harasses them. Now, the grace of God should eradicate these vices; it can and will, if you yield to its influence. Other sheep of Christ’s flock are halt and lame because they have been ill-fed. Bad food is the cause of a thousand disorders. Many a sickly man, instead of being dosed with drugs, needs to be nourished with wholesome meat. Had he something better to feed upon, he might conquer his diseases. May God supply us constantly with strong meat, and sound health to digest it. Full many of the Lord’s sheep are lame because they have been worried. Sheep often get worried by a dog, and so they get lamed. It may be I am addressing some poor child of God who has been beset by Satan, the accuser of the brethren, and frightfully tormented. Oh, what trouble and what terror he can inflict upon us! Others, too, have been harassed by persecutors. Many a poor woman has lost her cheerful spirits through a harsh, ungodly husband, who has excited her fears or vexed her with sneers; and not a few dear young children have been broken down for life through the hard treatment they have had for conscience sake to endure at home. Some precious saints I have known have grown lame through a rough and weary way, just as sheep can be lamed if they are driven too fast, or too far, or over too strong a ground. To what an excess of trouble some children of God have been exposed! The Lord has graciously helped them through all their adversities. Still the trouble they have had to endure has told upon their hearts. Perhaps more still are lamed through the rough road of controversy. If you are a child of God, and you know your bearings, keep always as much as ever you can out of the jingle-jangle of

controversy. Little good ever comes of your subtle disputations, but they do gender much strife. Full many of the Lord’s sheep have become lame through negligence, faintness, and the gradual declension of spiritual health. They have backslidden; they have been remiss in prayer, and forsaken communion with God, so it is no marvel that their walk betrays their weakness. Beware of catching a chill in religion. Lameness is not unfrequently the result of a fall. Saddest, most sorrowful, of all the causes of lameness this which comes through a fall into any sin. Heaven spare us from turning aside to folly!

II. DO YE ASK, THEN, WHAT HE SAYS WE ARE TO DO FOR THESE LAME ONES? Evidently, we ought to comfort them. Lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees. Cheer the hearts when the limbs are weak. Tell the doubting that God is faithful. Tell those that feel the burden of sin that it was for sinners Christ died. Tell the backsliders that God never does cast away His people. Tell the desponding that the Lord delighteth in mercy. Tell the distracted the Lord doth devise means to bring back His banished. But will you please give heed to the special instruction. We are to make straight paths because of lame people. You cannot heal the man’s bad foot, but you can pick all the stones out of the path that he has to pass over. You cannot give him a new leg, but you can make the road as smooth as possible. Let there be no unnecessary stumbling-blocks to cause him pain. Do you ask me how you can observe this precept? If you have to preach the gospel, preach it plainly. Would you make straight paths, then take care that your teaching is always according to the Bible. And, in all our walk and conversation let us make straight paths to our feet as those who aim at holiness of life. Unholy Christians are the plague of the Church. The inconsistencies of professors spread dismay among weak, desponding believers. Once more let me admonish you. Do not be negligent when your Lord is so vigilant. The Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, evidently cares for the lame ones. The charge He gives is a proof of the concern He feels. He bids us to be considerate of them, because He Himself takes a warm interest in their welfare.

III. WHAT NOW SHALL I SAY TO YOU WHO FEEL YOUR OWN WEAKNESS AND INFIRMITY? YOU lame ones who cannot walk without limping, I know bow you complain. “Ah,” say you, “I am no credit to Christianity. Though in all sincerity I do believe in Jesus, yet I fear that after all he will disown me.” When Mr. Greatheart went with Muchafraid and Feeblemind on the road to the celestial city, he had his hands full. He says of poor Mr. Feeblemind, that when he came to the

lions, he said, “Oh, the lions will have me.” And he was afraid of the giants, and afraid of everything on the road. It caused Greatheart much trouble to get him on the road. It is so with you. Well, you must know that you are very troublesome and hard to manage. But then our good Lord is very patient; He does not mind taking trouble. In the Divine economy the more care you require the more care you shall have. Besides, you know somewhat of our blessed Redeemer’s covenant engagements. Did our Lord Jesus Christ fail to bring His weak ones home, it would be much to His dishonour. In your weakness lies your great strength. Jesus Christ will be sure to cover you with His power, so that when you are utterly defenceless you shall be most efficiently defended. “Ah,” says another, “I have had a weary life of it hitherto.” Yes, but you have brighter days to come. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Verse 14Hebrews 12:14

Follow peace.., and holinessThe winnowing fan

I. TWO THINGS TO BE FOLLOWED. We are to follow peace and holiness; the two are consistent with each other and may be followed together. Peace is to be studied, but not such a peace as would lead us to violate holiness by conforming to the ways of unregenerate and impure men. We are only so far to yield for peace sake as never to yield a principle; we are to be so far peaceful as never to be at peace with sin: peaceful with men, but contending earnestly against evil principles. Courtesy is not inconsistent with faithfulness. It is not needful to be savage in order to be sanctified. Follow holiness, but do not needlessly endanger peace. Having thus hinted at the connection between the two, and how the two together make up a complete character, let us now take them one by one.

I. Follow PEACE, “peace with all” says the text--an amplification of the expression. Follow peace with all the Church. Hold what you believe with firmness, for you are not to trifle with God’s truth; but wherever you see anything of Christ, there confess relationship, and act as a brother towards your brother in Christ. Follow peace with all, especially with all your own relatives and friends at home. Call we that man a Christian who will not speak with his own brother? Follow peace with all your neighbours. & Christian man should not make himself hated by all around him, yet there are some who seem to fancy that they are true

to their religion in proportion as they make themselves disagreeable. Win your neighbours by your willingness to oblige; disarm their opposition, if possible, by courtesy, by charitableness, by kindness. Follow peace with all--even with persecutors. The anvil after all breaks the hammer, because it bears every stroke and returns none; so be it with the Christian. The text says

II. “FOLLOW peace,” and the word “follow” indicates a hunter in pursuit of his game. He tracks the footsteps of his prey, he follows it over hill and dale, by the edge of the precipice, over the dangerous ridge, across the brook and along the river, through the wood and down the glen. Follow peace in this way; that is, do not merely be peaceful if nobody irritates you, but go out of your way to be peaceful; give up many things that you have a right to enjoy; the respect that is due to you be willing to forego; in fine, yield all but truth for peace sake. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind.” “Charity beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” Often the Alpine hunter, when pursuing the chamois, will leap from crag to crag, will wear out the live-long day, will spend the night upon the mountains cold brow, and then descend to the valleys, and up again to the hills, as though he could never tire, and could never rest until he has found his prey. So perseveringly, with strong resolve to imitate your Lord and Master, follow peace with all. The next object of pursuit is a still higher attainment--would God we had reached it.

III. “Follow peace with all men, and HOLINESS.” The amplification of the term “holiness” is the solemn declaration, “without which no man shall see the Lord.” I understand by this sentence, in the first place, that no person who is unholy can see or understand Christ the Lord, or God His Father; that is to say, he does not know who Christ is so as to have any real fellowship with Him. He may know His name and know His history, and have some theoretical ideas of what the Redeemer did and is, but he cannot discern the spiritual character and teaching of the Lord. But perhaps the great meaning lies in this--without holiness no man can see the Lord in heaven at last. He will see Him on the throne of judgment, but he cannot see Him as his Friend, he cannot see Him in that beatific vision which is appointed for the sanctified, he cannot see Him so as to find joy and delight in the sight of Him. Now, see, the text says, “Follow holiness”; follow it, that is to say, you will not gain it by standing still. Nobody ever grew holy without consenting, desiring, and agonising to be holy. Sin will grow without sowing, but holiness needs cultivation. You must pursue it with determination, with eagerness, with long-continued perseverance, as a hunter pursues his prey.

II. Two THINGS TO BE AVOIDED. “Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.” The first thing to be avoided is failure. There are some persons who for a time exhibit many outward evidences of being Christians, but at last the temptation comes most suitable to their depraved tastes, and they are carried away with it. They fail of the grace of God. Like a man in business who makes money for a time, but fails in the end. Some have maintained an admirable character to all appearance all their lives, and yet have failed of the grace of God because of some secret sin. It says, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.” The word is “ episcopountes,” a word which signifies overseeing, being true bishops, looking diligently as a man on the watchtower watches for the coming foe. See the sentry pace the rampart, he looks in one direction and he sees the brushwood stirred, he half thinks it is the foe, and suspects an ambush there; he looks to the front, across the sea, does he not discern a sail in the distance? The attack may be from the seaboard; he looks to the right, across the plain, and if even a little dust should move he watches lest the foe should be on foot. So in the Church of God each one should be on his watchtower for himself and for others, watching diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. The second thing to be avoided is uprising evil: “Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” In the centre of my lawn horse-radish will sprout up; after the smallest shower of rain it rises above the grass and proclaims its vitality. There was a garden there once, and this root maintains its old position. When the gardener cuts it down, it resolves to rise again. Now, if the gardener cannot get it quite out of the ground, it is his business constantly to cut it down. We are but men, and even when associated in church-fellowship, each one brings his own particular poisonous root, and there are sure to be bad roots in the ground. We are to watch diligently lest any of these poisonous roots spring up, for if they do they will trouble us. Sill and error always bring sorrow and division, and thereby many are defiled. (C. H. Spurgeon.)The ideal life:

How beautiful and solemn are these words, like the swelling cadence of heaven’s own music. Evidently they do not emanate from this sorrow-stricken and warring world; they are one of the laws of the kingdom of heaven, intended to fashion our life on earth.

I. THERE IS OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS GOD. “Follow after holiness.” In R.V. this is rendered “sanctification.” And this in turn is only a Latinequivalent

for “setting apart,” as Sinai among mountains, the Sabbath among the days of

the week, the Levites among the Jews, and the Jews among the nations of the earth. But after all there is a deeper thought. Wily were people, places, and things, set apart? Was it not because God was there. We can never be holy apart from God, but when God enters the spirit of man, He brings holiness with Him. Nay, the presence of God in mall is holiness. He is the holy man in whom God dwells. He is the holier, in whom God dwells more fully. He is the holiest, who, however poor his intellect and mean his earthly lot, is most possessed and filled by the presence of God through the Holy Ghost (1   Corinthians 1:2 ; 1   Corinthians 6:19 ). Why then does the sacred writer bid us “follow after holiness,” as though it were an acquisition? Because, though holiness is the in-filling of man’s spirit by the Spirit of God, yet there are certain very important conditions to be observed by us, if we would secure and enjoy that blessed gift.

1. Give self no quarter. It is always asserting itself in one or other of its Protean shapes. It may show itself in religious pride, in the satisfaction with which we hear ourselves remarked for our humility. It will need incessant watchfulness, because where self is there God cannot come. He will not share His glory with another.

2. Yield to God. He is ever seeking the point of least resistance in our natures. Help Him to find it, and when found, be sure to let Him have His blessed way.

3. Take time to it. This is not natural, but it may become as second nature by habitual diligence.

II. THERE IS OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS MEN. “Follow after peace.” The effect of righteousness is always peace. If you are holy, you will be at peace. Peace is broken by temptation, but the holy soul has learnt to put Christ between itself and the first breath of the tempter. Peace is broken by care, dissatisfaction, and unrest, but the Lord stands round the holy soul, as do the mountains round Jerusalem, which shield off the cruel winds, and collect the rain which streams down their broad sides to make the dwellers in the valleys rejoice and sing. Others may be fretful and feverish, the subjects of wild alarms, but there is perfect peace to the soul which has God, and is satisfied. But there must be a definite following after peace. The temperaments of some are so trying. Hence the need of endeavour and patience and watchfulness, that we may exercise a wholesome influence as peacemakers.

1. Avoid becoming a party to a quarrel. It takes two to make a quarrel: never be one.

2. If opposed to the malice of men, do not avenge yourselves. Our cause is more God’s than it is our own. It is for Him to vindicate us, and He will.

3. Do not give cause of offence. If you are aware of certain susceptibilities on the part of others, where they may be easily irritated, avoid touching them, if you can do so without being a traitor to God’s holy truth.

III. THERE IS OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS OUR FELLOW CHRISTIANS. “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.” It is a beautiful provision that love to a common Lord attracts us into the fellowship of His disciples, and as no individual life truly develops in solitariness, so no Christian is right or healthy who isolates himself from the communion of saints. But we go not there only for selfish gratification, but that we may look after one another, not leaving it to the officers of the host; but each doing our own share. There are three dangers.

1. The laggards. This is the meaning of “fail.” The idea is borrowed from a party of travellers, some of whom lag behind, as in the retreat from

Moscow, to fall a prey to Cossacks, wolves, or the awful sleep. Let us who are in the front ranks, strong and healthy, go back to look after the weaklings, who loiter to their peril.

2. The root of bitterness. There may be some evil root lurking in some heart, hidden now, but which will bear a terrible harvest of misery to many. So was it in Israel once, when Achan conceived thoughts of covetousness, and brought evil on himself, and mourning on the host whose defeat he had brought about. If we can discover the presence of such roots of bitterness, let us, with much searching of our own souls, humility, and prayer, root them out, ere they can spring up to cause trouble.

3. The profane and earthly minded. Of these Esau is the type, “who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” Alas! are there not many such? For one momentary gratification of the flesh, they forfeit not their salvation perhaps (we are not told that even Esau forfeited that), but their power to lead, to teach, to receive and hand on blessing to the Church. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Follow peaceI. THE NATURE OF THE DUTY REQUIRED: “Follow peace.” The word “follow”

is full of meaning. It implies strong desire, and vigorous endeavour; both the inward and outward man are to be engaged in this necessary and delightful service. It is also implied that we shall meet with many obstacles and difficulties in the way, both from the corruptions of our own hearts, and the perverse disposition of others: so that we shall need invincible perseverance.

1. In following after peace, we must pray that our own hearts and the hearts of others may be inclined to peace; we to propose, and they to accept it, and both to maintain it when once it has been established.

2. It becomes us to avoid whatever might become an obstacle to peace. Pride must be mortified; the pride of riches, of talents, and of reputation. Let us also beware of covetousness; for the love of money has separated those who would otherwise have been happily united. In order to preserve peace it is necessary also to discountenance slander and reproach, and to guard against ill-grounded jealousies and evil surmisings. Nothing can prosper where these propensities are indulged; they are the bane of confidence, and the rottenness of friendship.

3. We must endeavour to exercise those graces which have a pacific and uniting tendency. Of this description are humility, meekness, and love. Of the exercise of such virtues it may be said, as Tertullus did of the actions of Felix, by them we enjoy much quietness.

4. As the desire of peace should excite to the exercise of grace, so also to the faithful discharge of duty. We should do unto others, as we would have others in like circumstances do unto us. It becomes us to be courteous in our deportment, neither envious of those in superior circumstances, nor haughty towards others whom providence has placed beneath us. Let us also forget ill services, and requite good ones. Above all, let us mark those who would sow the seeds of strife, and avoid them, as we would a rock or quicksand, or a house infected with the plague.

5. Let us remember that a mild and peaceable disposition is one of the greatest ornaments to the Christian character. In this we shall resemble the ever blessed God, who is emphatically styled the God of peace. Jesus is also called the Prince of Peace, and His gospel is the gospel of peace; His followers therefore ought to be men of peace.

II. THE EXTENT OF THE DUTY: “FOLLOW peace with all men.” 1. We must follow after peace with men of all ranks and conditions in life. We

should behave with reverence towards those above us, and with courtesy towards those below us; avoiding on the one hand a proud spirit, and on the other, whatever is mean and grovelling.

2. With men of various tempers and dispositions. If masters are froward, servants should he submissive. If neighbours are unkind, ye must be

patient towards them, and towards all men. Virtue of every kind shines the brighter, when contrasted with its opposite, and gains a victory over it.

3. We must follow peace with men of every character and description, let their principles be what they may; with the righteous and the unrighteous, with both saints and sinners, in (he Church and in the world.

4. Christians of other denominations, and of different religious sentiments, are entitled to our attention and benevolent regard.

5. We must follow peace, even with our enemies. We must do good, where nothing but evil is to be expected in return. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

The duty of following peace with all menI. Attend to THE EXPLANATION OF THE TEXT, “Follow peace with all men.”

1. Consider, in the first place, the object which you must follow--peace with all men. All believers in Christ are the children of peace, and therefore, as far as is possible, they must live peaceably with all men. What is it that constitutes the happiness of heaven? It is the perfect and everlasting reign of peace.

2. That peace which we ought to cultivate sometimes flies away. That peace often departs from nations cannot be denied; that it often flies away front families is equally evident; and that it is not always found in the Church is a matter of deep and bitter lamentation.

3. When peace has departed it must be followed: “follow peace.” Some imagine that if they had no hand in driving peace away, nothing is required from them to bring it back again. But though the driving away of peace from a congregation may have been the work of a few, it is the duty of all to endeavour to bring it back again. Others, again, say, We will not prevent the return of peace, we wilt sit still and wait for its return, and when it comes we will give it a most hearty welcome. This is well so far as it goes, but it is not enough. In the pursuit of peace there must be mutual forgiveness. Have you obtained forgiveness of God? then you will reckon it both your duty and your privilege to forgive others. And be it remarked farther, that this forgiveness must be frank, and hearty, and open. In the pursuit of peace you must sacrifice your feelings, your prejudices, your angry passions, and even your interests. Blessed are the peace-makers; and blessed especially are those who make the greatest sacrifices to maintain, or to restore peace. In the pursuit of peace everything must be avoided which has a tendency to prevent the return of peace. The grounds

of difference should be buried in perpetual oblivion. Even angry, discontented, suspicious looks must be avoided. A man can fight with his eyes, as well as with his tongue, or with his hands; as, therefore, there must be hearts of love, and actions of love, there must be also looks of love. In the pursuit of peace you must abound in prayer.

II. THE GREAT DUTY OF FOLLOWING PEACE MIGHT BE ENFORCED BY MANY CONSIDERATIONS.

1. The authority of God enjoins this duty. God hath called us to peace. The fruit of the Spirit is peace. If, therefore, you desire to enjoy the favour of God, which is life; or if you dread the anger of God, which is perdition, follow peace with all men.

2. Consider the Master whom you profess to serve. Is He not the Prince of Peace? Has He not made peace by the blood of His Cross? Is not His gospel, which you all profess to believe, the gospel of peace?

3. Consider the injury which you do to the Church by these unseemly contentions.

4. Consider that the hour of death is coming. You cannot die comfortably if you are not at peace with all mankind. Hasten, then, in pursuit of peace, and give yourself no rest until you have overtaken it and brought it back. (W. Smart.)

The peaceful temper:There are many particular duties in which Christianity and worldly wisdom

meet, both recommending the same course. One of these is the duty mentioned in the text, viz., that of being at peace with others. A wise adviser of this world tells any one who consults him as to his conduct in life, to beware especially of getting into quarrels with people. He tells him not only to avoid actual quarrels, but to cultivate a peaceful temper. The gospel tells us to do the same. The reason which worldly prudence suggests is the quiet and happiness of life, which are interfered with by relations of enmity to others. The reason which religion gives is the duty of brotherly-love, of which the peaceful disposition is a part. But the frequency of the advice, under either aspect, is remarkable, and shows that there is some strong prevailing tendency in human nature to which it is opposed. When we examine, then, the tempers of men, to see what there is in them which is so strongly opposed to this precept of following peace, the first thing we observe is, that people rush into quarrels from simple violence and impetuosity of temper, which prevents them from waiting a single minute to examine the merits

of the case, and the facts of the case, but carries them forward possessed with a blind partiality in their own favour, and seeing nothing but what favours their own side. Again, there is the malignant temper, which fastens vindictively upon particular persons, who have been either the real or supposed authors of some disadvantage. Men of this character pursue a grudge unceasingly, and never forget or forgive. But impetuosity and malignity are not the only tempers which are opposed to the law of peace, and to the peaceful disposition. There are some very common habits of mind, which, without being so conspicuous in their manifestations, lead to a great deal of enmity of a certain kind--sometimes open enmity, sometimes, when this is avoided, still to bad relations towards others. There are many persons who can never be neutral or support a middle state of mind. If they do not positively like others, they will see some reason for disliking them; they will be irritable if they are not pleased; they will be enemies if they are not friends. They cannot bear to be in an attitude of mind which does not give active employment to the feelings on one side or the other. On this principle many of their neighbours are eyesores to them and the very sight of them interrupts their repose, when there is no real occasion for any such feelings; inasmuch as if they have furnished no cause for pleasure, they have not furnished any cause for pain either. And now, what I want to observe is, how completely this rule is opposed to the law which the apostle lays down, of “following peace with all men.” When we examine what the relation of peace is, we find that it is exactly that relation towards others which the temper I have described has such a difficulty in adopting, and which is so repugnant to its taste. It is not a state of active love and affection, for these we do not call being at peace, but something more: nor is it a state which admits of any ill-feeling; but it lies between the two, comprehending all kindly intentions, forbidding the least wish for another’s injury, avoiding, as much as possible, dispute and occasion of offence; consulting order, quiet, and contentment, but not arriving at more than this. Peace implies the entire absence of positive ill-will. The apostle then says that this is our proper relation toward all men. More than this applies to some, but as much as this applies to all. He would have us embrace all men within our love, so far as to be in concord with them, not to be separated from them. Be in fellowship, he says, with all men, so far as to have nothing wrong in your relation to them, nothing to disunite: follow peace with all men. Is any other principle of conduct and kind of temper indeed fit for this world in which we live? The great mass of those even whom we know and meet with in the intercourse and

business of life must be comparatively nothing to us. More than this, they must be often persons who are not made after a model that we like, persons who do not sympathise with us or elicit sympathy from us. True and genuine intercourse and communication between minds, if it could be obtained, might clear up a good deal of this cloud, and remove the barrier which separates one man from another: but this is not given, and if it were, there still remains dissimilarity of tempers, gifts, and tastes, The apostle then lays down a plain rule with respect to the whole of this large section--viz., to be at peace with them. I have shown that there is a kind of temper and disposition which, without impetuosity, and without malignity, is still in opposition to the law of peace, and does in fact produce a great deal of latent, if not open enmity, in the world. I will now mention one or two reasons which have a great deal to do in promoting this temper. In the first place, it is very irksome to keep watch over ourselves, and to repel the intrusion of hostile thoughts by the simple resistance of conscience, when we are not assisted by any strong current of natural feeling in doing so. This is a difficult duty. But those who say that they either like or dislike, avoid and evade this duty. Another reason which tends to keep up the disposition which I have been describing is, that the hostile class of relations are evidently accompanied by their own pleasures in many temperaments. They furnish an excitement to them; and, at the bottom, they prefer it to a state of peace on this account, because there is agitation and a flutter of spirits in this relation; whereas peace is repose, and does not offer this play to the mind and temper. They would rather a great deal be in a state of irritation with any person for any reason than feel at all dull. To be dull is the greatest trial to them. They will stir up the scene at any rate, even at the cost of renewing vexatious subjects. It breaks the level of life; it varies the flatness of it. It is a stimulant; it keeps the spirits in motion. So, too, is the justification of dislike; the explanation how it arose and was called for. All this is much more to the taste of many than being at peace. They are not conscious of any deep malignity, but they derive a pleasure still from the disturbance of the ground, the agitation of the elements of life, which they take care shall not subside into complete repose. It was with the entire knowledge of these weaknesses and frailties of human nature, and these elements of disturbance, even in minds of average goodness, that St. Paul said--“Follow peace with all men.” You must not, he says, be at peace only with those to whom you are partial; that is easy enough; you must be at peace with those toward whom you entertain no partiality, who do not perhaps please you, or suit you. That is the

rule of peace which the gospel lays down, and it must be fulfilled by standing guard at the entrance of our hearts, and keeping off intruding thoughts. And he says again that we must not seek excitement from the petty quarrels and discords of life, from prejudice and antipathies, and the commotion which is bred out of them. This is a poor and morbid pleasure which impoverishes and lowers every mind that indulges in it. Let us “follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” It is not without design that these two were connected together by the apostle--following peace and holiness. A life of enmities is greatly in opposition to growth in holiness. All that commotion of petty animosity in which some people live, is very lowering, it dwarfs the spiritual growth of persons. In a state of peace the soul lives as in a watered garden, where, under the watchful eye of the Divine Source, the plant grows and strengthens. All religious habits and duties--prayer, charity, and mercy, are formed and matured when the man is in a state of peace with others--with all men; when he is not agitated by small selfish excitements and interests which divert him from himself and his own path of duty, but can think of himself, what he ought to do, and where he is going. (J. B.Mozley, D. D.)A patterer of peace

I. WHAT IS THIS PEACE? Peace is threefold. 1. Above us: namely, reconciliation with God. 2. Within us: namely, an inward conformity of sanctified faculties, of mind, will,

and affections. 3. Without us: with the creatures, especially with man, which our text

speaketh of. And this external peace of man with man is nothing else but an holy agreement and consent of minds, speeches, and carriage in all good things.

II. WHAT IT IS TO FOLLOW PEACE. 1. Seek it out, and beat it out, as dogs at a loss: if we cannot find the track in

one place, seek it in another. 2. Follow it with earnestness, as hunters follow their game earnestly, with

strong intention, not as on a cold scent. 3. With desire to take it; for so do they. 4. With pleasure and delight in taking it. Our souls must delight in the

purchase of peace. Thus Abraham hunted after peace with Lot, and obtained.

III. WITH WHOM MUST WE FOLLOW PEACE? With all men. To embrace peace with good men is not hard for a good man; for they will hardly be put out of the way, and are soon led in again; but to hold peace with evil men is praiseworthy. But with some men we must not have peace, and with many men we cannot have peace. For the former: Israel must never seek the peace of Moabites and Ammonites (Deuteronomy 23:6), and the same of the Canaanites (Ezra 9:11). If it be so by special revelation, which is no rule for the common course. But peace cannot be had with all men; some will not be at peace: wicked men will have no peace with godly men. As soon shall you reconcile darkness to light, fire and water, heaven and hell, as Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jews and Samaritans.

1. Though we cannot have it with all men, we must follow it with all men. If thou seekest it though thou canst not find it, it is enough for thee. First, so far as is possible (Romans 12:18). If it be not possible to recover peace but upon bad conditions, let it go; we must prefer many things before peace, as

A life of peace and kindness:Dean Stanley said to the crowd of children at Westminster Abbey, on

Innocents’ Day, December 28th: “I knew once a very famous man, who lived to be very old--who lived to be eighty-eight. He was always the delight of those about him. He always stood up for what was right. His eye was like an eagle’s when it flashed fire at what was wrong. And how early do you think he began to do this? I have an old grammar which belonged to him, all tattered and torn, which he had when a little boy at school; and what do you think I found written, in his own hand, in the very first page? Why, these words: ‘ Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, to silence vicious tongues--be just, and fear not.’ That was his rule all through life, and he was loved and honoured down to the day when he was carried to his grave.” Peaceable holiness:--It was a saying of the pious Richard Baxter, recorded by himself in the “History of his own Times”: “While we wrangle here in the dark we are dying, and passing to that world which will decide all our controversies: and the safest passage thither is by peaceable holiness.” God’s love of peace:

Of all the birds the dove is the most easily alarmed and put to flight at hearing a shot fired. Remember that the Holy Ghost is compared to a dove; and if you begin to shoot at each other, the Heavenly Dove will take wing and instantly

leave you. The Holy Spirit is one of love and peace, not of tumult and confusion. He cannot live among the smoke and noise of fired shots: if you would grieve the Holy Spirit and compel Him to retire, you have only to commence firing at one another, and He will instantly depart. (Williams of Wern.)The evil of disunion:

When the troops of Monmouth were sweeping the bridge (at the battle of Bothwell Brig), and Claverhouse, with his dragoons, was swimming the Clyde, the Covenanters, instead of closing their ranks against their common foe, were wrangling about points of doctrine and differences of opinion. In consequence, they were scattered by enemies whom, if united, they might have withstood and conquered. (T. Guthrie.)Christianity and war:

Dr. Gutzlaff, who spent three years as a missionary in Siam, said: “The Siamese looked with great anxiety upon the part which the English would take in the war between Quedah and themselves. When the king first heard of their neutrality, he exclaimed: ‘ I beheld, finally, that there is some truth in Christianity, which formerly I considered very doubtful.’ This favourable opinion influenced the people to become friendly with us. The consequence was that we gained access to persons of all ranks and of both sexes.” (Tinling’s Illustrations.)

Holiness, without which no man shall see the LordThe highest end of being, and the only way to reach it

I. THE HIGHEST END OF BEING. TO “see the Lord” means to have loving fellowship with Him who is infinite Love.

II. THE ONLY WAY TO REACH IT. “Holiness.” 1. God cannot be so seen as to be admired through the medium of a corrupt

heart. 2. God cannot be so seen as to be admired, through the medium of a guilty

conscience. CONCLUSION:

1. This subject serves to expose some popular religious errors. 2. This subject serves to show the infinite value of the work of Christ. 3. This subject serves to reveal wherein true wisdom consists.

HolinessI. THE BLESSINGS OF HOLINESS. II. THE WAY TO HOLINESS.

1. Grace is the source of it.

2. Constant progress is necessary to it. 3. Diligence is a requisite in it.

III. THE MOTIVES TO HOLINESS, 1. Troublers are destroyed by it. 2. Backsliding is prevented by it. 3. Influence for good is increased by it. 4. There is no heaven without it. (Homilist.)

Holiness demandedI. First, then, YE ARE ANXIOUS TO KNOW WHETHER YE HAVE HOLINESS

OR NOT. NOW, if our text said that without perfection of holiness no man could have any communion with Christ, it would shut every one of us out, for no one, who knows his own heart, ever pretends to be perfectly conformed to God’s will. It does not say, “Perfection of holiness,” mark; but “ holiness.” This holiness is a thing of growth. As the Spirit of God waters it, it will grow till the mustard-seed shall become a tree. Well, now, let us note four sorts of people who try to get on without holiness.

1. First, there is the Pharisee. The Pharisee goes to work with outward ceremonies.

2. Then there is the moralist. He has never done anything wrong in his life. Ah, but this is not holiness before God.

3. Another individual who thinks to get on without holiness, and who does win a fair reputation in certain circles, is the experimentalist. You must be aware that there are some professed followers of Christ whose whole religious life is inward; to tell you the truth, there is no life at all; but their own profession is that it is all inward. You may say what you will about what you dream you have felt, you may write what you please about what yon fancy you have experienced; but if your own outward life be unjust, unholy, ungenerous, and unloving, you shall find no credit among us as to your being in Christ. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”

4. There is another class of persons, happily fewer than they once were, but still there are some among us still--opinionists, who think they can do without holiness. They have learned a sound creed, or perhaps an unsound one; they think they have got hold of the truth, that they are the men, and that when they die the faithful will fail from among men. They understand theology very accurately. They are wiser than their teachers. Down with thy hopes! Heart-work, carried out afterwards into life-work, this

is what the Lord wants, You may perish as well with true doctrines as with false, if you pervert the true doctrine into licentiousness.

5. But to help you still further, brethren, that man is destitute of true holiness who can look back upon his own past sin without sorrow.

6. And I am quite sure that you know nothing of true holiness if you can look forward to any future indulgence of sensual appetites with a certain degree of delightful anticipation.

7. Again, methinks you have great cause for questioning, unless your holiness is uniform. Some farmers I know in the country maintain a creditable profession in the village where they live; they go to a place of worship, and very good people they are: but there is a farmers’ dinner once a year; it is only once a year--we will not say anything about how they get home--the less that is said the better for their reputation. “It is only once a year,” they tell us; but holiness does not allow of dissipation even “ once a year.” And we know some who, when they go on the Continent, for instance, say, “Well, we need not be quite so exact there”; and therefore the Sabbath is utterly disregarded, and the sanctities of daily life are neglected, so reckless are they in their recreations. Well, if your religion is not warranted to keep in any climate it is good for nothing.

8. Then, let me further remark, that those who can look with delight or any degree of pleasure upon the sins of others are not holy.

II. Now, then, for the second point: “WITHOUT HOLINESS NO MAN SHALL SEE THE LORD”; that is to say, no man can have communion with God in this life, and no man can have enjoyment with God in the life to come without holiness. “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” If thou goest with Belial dost thou think Christ will go with thee?

III. I come to my last point, which is PLEADING WITH YOU. “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” But I hear one say, “It is impossible; I have tried it and I have broken down: I did try to get better, but I did not succeed; it is of no use, it cannot be done.” You are right, my dear friend, and you are wrong. You are right, it is of no use going about it as you did; if you went in your own strength, holiness is a thing you cannot get; it is beyond you. But you are wrong to despair, for Christ can do it; He can do it for you, and He can begin it now. Believe on Him and He will begin with you; in fact, that believing will be the fruit of His having begun with you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Holiness alone fits for heavenI. HOLINESS MAY BE CONSIDERED AS OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW OF

GOD, OR AS CONFORMITY TO HIS MORAL CHARACTER. It is, however, quite immaterial which definition we adopt. As “love is the fulfilling of the law,” and as “ God is love,” to obey the law, is to be like God in moral character.

II. HOLINESS IS THIS WORLD IS INDISPENSABLE TO OUR HAPPINESS IN ANOTHER,

1. It is so by the unalterable appointment of God. 2. It appears from the character of God. 3. From the fact that none of the sources or means of happiness, which the

wicked possess in this world, will exist in heaven. 4. From the fact that the character of man becomes unchangeable at death. 5. From the nature of the soul. 6. If we consider what heaven is. Every being there reflects the image of God.

Everything we hear in that world is the voice of praise and thanksgiving--the universal burst of gratitude, and wonder, and love, in songs of joy and transport, filling all its arches, and making all its pillars tremble.

Remarks: 1. Every impenitent sinner may be convinced, from his own experience, of the

necessity of a new heart to fit him for heaven. 2. Christian brethren, “what manner of persons ought ye to he in all holy

conversation and godliness?” (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)Holiness

Valuable as peace is, we are not to sacrifice truth or righteousness in order to obtain it.

I. EXPLAIN THE EXHORTATION: “Follow after holiness.” Men in general make no pretension to holiness; and some who do, know not what it is. Many imagine that it consists merely in chastity, or putting a restraint upon the sensual appetite, which is only a particular branch of that purity to which we are here exhorted. Others suppose that it extends no farther than to outward decency of conduct, or general regularity of behaviour. Though these things do not constitute real holiness, but fall very far short of it; neither does it imply an absolute freedom from all imperfections as some have vainly imagined. Sorrow for sin, and a hatred of it, take place in every renewed heart, but not an entire exemption from its being. Holiness, however, though it is not in the present life what some make it to be, nor what the saints wish it to be, yet it is the beauty and ornament of the

soul. All moral excellences are included in it; and all spiritual consolation, which is the most satisfying, is derived from it. It is our brightest resemblance to God; our principal glory in this world, and our highest happiness in the next.

1. Holiness is the fruit of sovereign and effectual grace (Ezekiel 36:25-26). 2. True holiness is seated in the heart. It is not an outward name, but an

inward nature; a Divine principle implanted. 3. Holiness is not a single grace, but an assemblage of all the graces, and

extends to all the duties of the Christian life. It is not like a single luminary, but a constellation, where numerous planets intermingle their lustre and their beauty, and give additional brightness to the whole. It is not meekness, humility, faith, hope, or charity; but all these united. Thus the Church, the spouse of Christ, is described as coming up out of the wilderness, perfumed with myrrh, and frankincense, and all powders of the merchant.

4. All true holiness in man is through the mediation of Christ, and is derived from Him as the Head of His mystical body. In Him it is concentrated, like light in the sun; in us it is as light in the air, emanating from His fulness. We begin to be holy when we begin to know Christ; and we grow in holiness as we increase in the knowledge of Him. Real saints are a living image of the invisible Saviour.

5. True holiness is an abiding principle, consisting in the habitual rectitude of all the powers and faculties of the soul. It is a well of water springing up, amidst innumerable obstructions, to eternal life; a light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Those who seek after holiness, shall always find it; and those who love it shall never lose it.

6. We are to “follow” after holiness, so as to make it the object of intense and continual pursuit; to leave no duty unperformed, no means untried, in order to obtain it in a still higher degree. For this purpose let us search the Holy Scriptures, attend upon holy ordinances, keep company with holy men, and be daily conversant with holy things. Above all, let us earnestly implore the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit.

II. CONSIDER THE MOTIVE by which the exhortation is enforced: “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”

1. Observe, “no man,” no individual, not one of all the human race, whatever be his expectations or attainments, whatever opinion he may have of himself, or whatever opinion others may entertain concerning him.

2. He shall not “ see the Lord.” It is as it were written over the gate of heaven, Nothing enters here that defileth. The wicked shall indeed have a sight of God, in some respects; but it shall be to their everlasting sorrow and confusion. They shall behold Him as Balaam did, but not nigh; at an awful unapproachable distance they shall see Him, but not for themselves; as a Judge and Avenger, but not as a Friend or a Father.

3. “Without holiness “ no man shall see the Lord. Not that holiness is the meritorious or procuring cause of salvation; for when we have done all that we can do, even through Divine assistance, we are unprofitable servants. Holiness accompanies salvation, and prepares for it, but not in a way of desert. Nevertheless, holiness is absolutely necessary to eternal life

Holiness essential to a sight of Christ:There are, unhappily, many who will talk of the everlasting covenant, and of the

inscription of their own names on its pages, with as much assurance as though God had made them a special revelation; and it were at least to be expected, that with all this assumption of superior revelation there should keep pace a striving after superior holiness. It were, at least, to be hoped, that they who pronounce themselves sure of heaven, would put forth more than ordinary tokens of an increasing fitness for heaven; for it is indeed a strange anomaly if, knowing as we do, that there shall enter into the New Jerusalem nothing that defileth, and nothing that worketh abomination, men who have a title of admission, chartered and signed, may go on in recklessness and unrighteousness of living; and too commonly they who are fondest of solving all doubts by an appeal to God’s covenant, are just those who could obtain no satisfactory verdict from their own life and conversation. Our business is not so much the depending on our election as the ascertaining our election; and it is, therefore, to use the mildest language, a beginning at the wrong end, when men assume that they are elected, and then go on to be confident. The safe and the direct course is to observe whether they are changed men, and renewed men, and God-fearing men, and then to infer, though with the very deepest humility, that they are elected men. We have no such text in the Bible as this--“Election, without which no man shall see the Lord”; but we have this--“Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” We go on to observe that there is a peculiarity in the expression, “no man shall see the Lord,” which marks a reference to the present life yet more than to the future. “Every eye shall see Him,” is St. John’s declaration, when looking on to the Second Advent of Christ. We know that without a single exception the

descendants of Adam shall stand face to face with the anointed Judge of human kind, so that the holy and the unholy shall alike behold Him, though the one rejoicingly, while the other shall shrink from His presence; and therefore we cannot uphold it as literally true, that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” if it be on the future that we mainly fix our contemplations. But a most extensive, and at the same time a most interesting field of inquiry will open before you, if we consider the words as applicable to the present life, though, of course, without excluding a reference to the next life. The passage would seem decidedly to announce, that holiness, in some degree or other, is indispensable to the obtaining any knowledge whatever of Christ. We admit, indeed, that a thorough historical acquaintance may be obtained, whilst there is a bold persisting in a course of iniquity. But our text shows, that to whatever extent this scholastic knowledge of the scheme and nature of Christianity can be ascribed, there can be gained no sight of Christ Jesus Himself until some inroads be made on the sinfulness of our nature. And when a man is converted, and therefore “renewed in the spirit of his mind”--that is, the organ is obtained through which the Lord is beheld--the strength and clearness of his looking upon Christ will ever after be exactly proportioned to the advance of sanctification. If the Christian fall into gross sin, or if he conform himself to the passions and prejudices of the world, or if he encumber himself unnecessarily with cares and anxieties, the retardation in holiness will tell on the strength of the newly-acquired vision, and the view of Christ will become so obscure, that fresh witness will be given to the fact of holiness being indispensable to seeing the Lord. And, on the other hand, let the Christian be prosecuting an uncompromising warfare with corruption--let him be proceeding daily with a dominant step towards higher attainments in practical piety, and you will find that his sight of the Redeemer is continually improving. The mysteries of Christ’s person, the loveliness of His character, the might of His attributes, these open increasingly and shine out more vividly; and thus there is gathered an accession of proof that holiness is indissolubly connected with seeing the Lord. We would never give up that grand fundamental principle that faith is the gift of God, and that, consequently, no man can see the Lord, according to the definition we have sought to establish, unless a telescope, so to speak, be put into his hands by the Holy Ghost, and directed towards that illustrious Being in whom the natural eye discerns nothing of comeliness or form. But at the same time we are to the full as anxious to withstand the unwarranted opinion, that there can be no preparation made by the man himself; that because

faith must be strictly the gift of God, all we have to do is to wait for its reception. We are assured from the Bible that it is very possible to resist the Holy Ghost, and to grieve the Holy Ghost, and that, consequently, the case is of common occurrence in which this Divine agent comes unto men, bringing with him the telescope, or the organ of vision, and then opposed by their passions and lusts, departs without bestowing the precious donation. And hence we set it forth as an indisputable position that it lies in man’s power, and is manifestly man’s business to remove impediments to the operations of God’s Spirit, and that though he cannot give himself the Spirit, he may throw off very much that may withstand the approaches of that Spirit. Let us go on to endeavour to show you how holiness would affect the clearness of all future contemplations of Christ. There remains nothing to be added to the work of the Saviour, in order that it may be available to the complete justification of the sinner. But, then, does imputed righteousness at all interfere with personal holiness? Not one jot. There is to be wrought in us a righteousness which is quite independent of that perfect righteousness which has been wrought out for us by Christ. The righteousness of Christ is that meritorious righteousness which deserves for us heaven; the righteousness which is wrought in our spirits is that qualifying righteousness which prepares us for heaven. And if it be thus certain that holiness, personal, inwrought holiness, is essential to that sight of the Lord which shall constitute the great bliss of heaven, we may justly argue that it is essential to those contemplations of the Saviour which are our foretastes of that bliss whilst we sojourn upon earth. And this, in other words, is the proposition laid down in our text, though the proof of that proposition may be thrown into easier and yet more popular shape. How can the man who is falling back into sin have his eye upon Christ, who condemned sin in the flesh? How can the individual who, after professedly renouncing the world, suffers himself to be entangled in its follies and allured by its flatteries, be looking fixedly towards Christ--Christ who said, “Marvel not if the world hate you; ye know that it hated Me before it hated you”? How can that disciple have a comforting assurance of the sacrifice of Christ in his own stead and in his own behalf, who by his lax and inconsistent conversation would falsify the account of Holy Writ, that “the grace of God which bringeth salvation teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world”? Whenever you find that you have no clear evidence of an interest in Jesus--that there is a sensible interruption of the hope and assurance which have been wont to flow ill and gladden the soul-then let a recurrence to the sentiment of our text

bring to your notice the reason, which in all likelihood best accounts for the change. Christ cannot be seen without holiness. Therefore search ye and determine whether the luminary be not riding as high and as bright as before in the firmament, and whether the sole cause why the murkiness is around you, and deep gloom seems wrought into the overhead canopy, be not in the passions which have been gratified, the concessions made, and the resolutions relaxed, so that from the witherings of a once flourishing holiness have gone up vapour and mist, which have darkened the sun, and intercepted the rich light which fell around your path. It is not that Christ withdraws His lustre; it is only that men, through carelessness, or lukewarmness, or conformity to the world, destroy the keenness of the spiritual vision. We reject, therefore, as presumptuous and insulting to God, all pretensions to privileges and rights which are independent on holiness, in thought, word, and deed; we refuse to take our test from what men style their experience; but we go alone, without hesitancy, to their practice. (H. Melvill, B. D.)The connection between holiness and felicity

I. THE NATURE OF HOLINESS. The most intelligible description of holiness as it is inherent in us, may be this, “It is a conformity in heart and practice to the revealed will of God.” Now His revealed will comprises both the law and the gospel: the law informs us of the duty which we as creatures owe to God; and the gospel of the duty which, as sinners, we owe to God as reconcilable through a Mediator. Our obedience to the former implies the whole of morality, and to the latter the whole of evangelical graces, as faith in a Mediator, repentance, &c. From this definition of holiness it appears that it is absolutely necessary to see the Lord; for unless our dispositions are conformed to Him, we cannot be happy in the enjoyment of Him. I shall expatiate upon the dispositions and practices in which holiness consists, or which naturally result from it; and they are such as follow:

1. A delight in God for His holiness. Self-love may prompt us to love Him for His goodness to us; and so many unregenerate men may have a selfish love to God on this account. But to love God because He is infinitely holy, is a disposition natural to a renewed soul only, and argues a conformity to His image.

2. Holiness consists in a hearty complacence in the law of God, because of its purity. The law is the transcript of the moral perfections of God; and if we love the original we shall love the copy.

3. Holiness consists in a hearty complacence in the gospel method of salvation, because it tends to illustrate the moral perfections of the Deity, and to discover the beauties of holiness. The gospel informs us of two grand pre-requisites to the salvation of the fallen sons of men, namely, the satisfaction of Divine justice by the obedience and passion of Christ, that God might be reconciled to them consistently with His perfections; and the sanctification of sinners by the efficacy of the Holy Ghost that they might be capable of enjoying God, and that He might maintain intimate communion with them without any stain to His holiness.

4. Holiness consists in an habitual delight in all the duties of holiness towards God and man, and an earnest desire for communion with God in them. This is the natural result of all the foregoing particulars. If we love God for His holiness, we shall delight in that service in which our conformity to Him consists; if we love His law, we shall delight in that obedience which it enjoins; and if we take complacence in the evangelical method of salvation, we shall take delight in that holiness without which we cannot enjoy it.

5. To constitute us saints indeed, there must be universal holiness in practice. This naturally follows from the last, for as the body obeys the stronger volitions of the will, so when the heart is prevailingly disposed to the service of God, the man will habitually practise it.

II. THE ENDEAVOURS WE SHOULD USE TO OBTAIN THIS HOLINESS. 1. Endeavour to know whether you are holy or not by close examination. 2. Awake, arise, and betake yourselves in earnest to all the means of grace.

III. THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF HOLINESS TO THE ENJOYMENT OF HEAVENLY HAPPINESS.

1. The unchangeable appointment of God excludes all the unholy from the kingdom of heaven; (see 1   Corinthians 9:6 ; Revelation 21:27; Psalms 5:4-5; 2   Corinthians 5:17 ; Galatians 6:15).

2. The very nature of things excludes sinners from heaven; that is, it is impossible in the nature of things, that, while they are unholy, they could receive happiness from the employments and entertainments of the heavenly world. (Pres. Davies.)

Follow holiness:This being the larger idea, explains and covers the lesser one of “peace with

all.” As when the tide recedes, the waters fret and raise angry surfs upon the

sunken rocks, but when it has advanced in full flow these rocks are submerged, and there is deep stillness over them, so in the full tide of consecration unto God all causes of disquietude are swallowed up and covered. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)Heaven--none admitted but those like Jesus

At heaven’s gate there stands an angel with charge to admit none but those who in their countenances bear the same features as the Lord of the place. Here comes a monarch with a crown upon his head. The angel pays him no respect, but reminds him that the diadems of earth have no value in heaven. A company of eminent men advance dressed in robes of state, and others adorned with the gowns of learning, but to these no deference is rendered, for their faces are very unlike the Crucified. A maiden comes forward, fair and comely, but the celestial watcher sees not in that sparkling eye and ruddy cheek the beauty for which he is looking. A man of renown cometh up heralded by fame, and preceded by the admiring clamour of mankind; but the angel saith, “Such applause may please the sons of men, but thou hast no right to enter here.” But free admittance is always given to those who in holiness are made like their Lord. Poor they may have been; illiterate they may have been; but the angel as he looks at them smiles a welcome as he says, “It is Christ again; a transcript of the holy child Jesus. Come in, come in; eternal glory thou shalt win. Thou shalt sit in heaven with Christ, for thou art like Him.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)No sin in heaven:

“There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.” Heaven is not like Noah’s ark, that received clean and unclean. A sinner is compared to swine (2   Peter 2:22 ), and shall a swinish creature tread upon the golden pavement of heaven? Indeed the frogs came into king Pharaoh’s court, but in heaven there is no entertainment for such vermin. (T. Watson.)Admittance to heaven

Governor Corwin says that some church members will have to make a great many explanations, before St. Peter, the reported keeper of the gate of heaven, will let them in. The character of others is so unequivocal that none will be required: the gate will fly wide open before them. Holiness a generic disposition:

When we speak of holiness in man, we speak of that positive character which reveals itself by the exercises or manifestations of a high moral character, which repeatedly shows itself in some men as the occasion may call forth. It is not a separate and distinct grace like humility, truth, temperance, or meekness, neither

is it a union of all the graces in such a way as light is the union of the primary rays of the sun. It is not an amalgamation of all the graces, but they are the means by which it shows itself in different directions and situations. There is a decided distinction between it and justice and meekness. The possession of one or other of these virtues does not imply holiness, but where holiness is, each of these graces will duly appear, h man may be temperate or just without being holy; but if he be holy all the graces will display themselves in him as a matter of course. Each of the graces will appear in him in their own proper occasions. Holiness is not one good quality, but the hand that moves beneath and around all of them. It is not one good action, but the principle that inspires all good actions; I might almost say it is like some essence we can hardly get at. It is not itself so much as the goodness of everything good in us; it is the virtue of virtues; or, in the words of an American theologian, it is not a head or part, but a complete whole, and by that we are to understand not a collection of properties, but a generic disposition which regulates all the movement of a Christian’s existence. Holiness, therefore, is the moral nature or character of God; and in man it is his moral nature, so that he who possesses it is a partaker of God’s nature. Thus we come back to the definition from which we set out. Holiness is God’s likeness, and when a man is disposed to think as God thinks, act as God acts, and seeks to live in unison with God and His character, then we have real and true holiness. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)Sight of God:

“I cannot love God,” said a thoughtless man, “for I have never seen Him.” “Canst thou not?” responded his companion; “ then thou canst do less than the little blind child who sits under the shade of the chestnut tree on the village green. She can love her father and mother, though she has never seen them, and will never see them to the latest hour of her life.” There is truth here. It requires a special faculty to see God. And it is a terrible fact that this sense, the power of God-consciousness, is often all but entirely destroyed by sin.

Verses 15-17Hebrews 12:15-17

Lest any man fail of the grace of GodAre you a failure?

The wish to succeed is natural. It is seen in a little child, who will sometimes shed tears if he happen to lose the race which he runs with other children. The

desire not only to do well, but to excel is the prevailing aspiration with all sane men and women. But the best men always feel as if they came short of the excellence they desire. One of the most eminent and beloved bishops of the Church of England had a book which he intended no one to see but himself, but he omitted to destroy it before he died; and in this book he had written under his name this sentence, “A man who has failed to accomplish his ideal.” Yet he was, indeed, a good man. When John Knox was on his death-bed, his friends said of him in his presence, “How pleasing for him now to remember the great deeds he has done for the gospel of Christ!” He replied, “I bid yon hush. Do not by such remarks add to the reproaches of my conscience, which upbraids me for the many things I have left undone, and the numberless things I ought not to have done; God be merciful to me a sinner!” When wise and good men do succeed, they feel that the result is scarcely due to their efforts, but to the working of the Spirit of God within them. A true artist forgets himself, thinking only of his work, and when he receives praise feels that he is merely the hand used by the spirit of art. In his finest strains the poet feels that it is not his own mind but the Divine muse, which possesses and inspires him to write glowing words. The sculptor, when be has chiselled the most beautiful specimen of his plastic art, feels how greatly distant he is from achieving his ideal of perfection. I have spoken thus to encourage those of you who I believe are truly great, and who feel that the work you do is imperfectly done. All divinely directed men of true genius feel as you do. Be cheered! Persevere in your work, and let not the consciousness of failure distress you too much; for that feeling is the evidence of genius--it is a blessed genius that can detect a flaw or an inferiority in your own work and stimulate you to continued effort. Let me now address those who are satisfied with their efforts, or who fail in them through some wilful fault of their own. “Looking diligently lest any man fail, or come short, of the grace of God.”

1. It may be that some of us fail through our want of continued effort. In nay garden there is a cherry tree. It bore no fruit the first year, but we took great pains with it, and the second year it brought forth one splendid cherry, and that was all. It made its effort and succeeded. Likewise, every tree, every flower, and even the common grass by the wayside makes strenuous efforts to put forth beauty and fruit after its kind. But unfortunately some of us men are not like trees and flowers; we do not make continued efforts.

2. Another reason your life is a failure is because you do not depend upon God, and you live more for yourself than for your fellow-men. What do I mean by “depending upon God”? Well, this. See that ship. The captain has put up the sails, and has done all he can. The ship is trimmed, the sails are set, and the captain waits upon the wind; he feels he is dependent Upon it. In the same way we should be dependent upon God. We should wait for Him. We should do what we can to make ourselves ready for His coming, and then wait for Him to do the rest, and be willing to be guided by Him. There is too much self with many of us, that is why, comparatively speaking, our lives are failures.

3. The reason why others of us fail is because we take not advantage of God’s grace.

4. Another reason for your failure may be that you delay doing your present duty. You do not do the thing that lies nearest you, but wait to do something great in the future. This habit of procrastination not only robs you of present good but of future blessing. In the same way, you are waiting for some great work to do instead of doing the thing at your right hand. Doing little things well is the best preparation for the achievement of great things. (W. Birch.)

Falling short of the grace of God:To prevent this danger they must look diligently. To this end

1. Every man must have a care of himself, and look to his own soul. 2. They must watch one over another, and if they see any inclining to

apostasy, or beginning to doubt of, or decline his profession, they must, by good example, instruction, admonition, reproof, and exhortation, seek to reform him.

3. The minister of the gospel being trusted with man’s soul, must be very watchful above all other; must exhort, reprove, and by his wholesome doctrine, inform the ignorant, strengthen the weak, reform the erroneous, encourage the faint, and suffer no such bitter root to spring up amongst his people.

4. They that have the power of discipline, upon information, must by admonition and lighter censures first seek to reclaim a sinning brother; and if so, they cannot rectify him, they must cast him out, lest others be infected. (G. Lawson.)

Anxiety for souls:

Fleming mentions one John Welsh, often, in the coldest winter nights, found weeping on the ground, and wrestling with the Lord, on account of his people, and saying to his wife when she pressed him for an explanation of his distress,” I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, while I know not how it is with many of them.” Piloting stalls

As the pilot-boats cruise far out, watching for every whitening sail, and hover, through day and night, all about the harbour, vigilant to board every ship, that they may bring safely through the narrows all the wanderers of the ocean; so should we watch off the gate of salvation for all the souls, tempest-tossed, beating in from the sea of sin, and guide them through the perilous straits, that at last in still waters they may east the anchor of their hope. (H. W. Beecher.)Grace should permeate the entire man:

In the camphor-tree every part is impregnated with the precious perfume; from the highest twig to the lowest root the powerful gum will exude. Thus grace should permeate our whole nature, and be seen in every faculty, every word, every act, and even every desire. If it be “in us and abound,” it will be so. An unsanctified part of our frame must surely be like a dead branch, deforming and injuring the tree.

Root of bitterness springing upRoots of bitterness:

Sin, whether in men or among them--whether viewed as inherent in the individual, or spread through the community--sin may well be compared to a root. This analogy does much to point out the nature, and the origin, and the consequences, and the cure of that one evil which offends God and afflicts men.

I. The analogy of a root serves to illustrate the NATURE of the evil. An accurate knowledge of the danger goes far to constitute a defence. The figure directs our thoughts at once to the heart as the seat of the affections. “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,” and words, and actions. Our care must not be exclusively directed to the deeds--the fruit above ground--we must seek to reach that hidden root which grows in the soul unseen, generating actual transgression in the life of men. There are many points in which the analogy holds good between a root and the sinful disposition of soul which gives birth to unrighteous action.

1. The root is below ground--unseen. The surface of the field, when you pass by, may be naked, and clean, and smooth--not a green blade to be seen, far less an opening flower, or ripening fruit; yet there may be in that field a

multitude of thriving, vigorous roots, that will soon cover and possess its surface with thorns and thistles. So in a church, or a family, or a single member of it, though for the time all that meets the eye be fair, there may be in the soul within a germ of evil already swelling, and ready to burst out into open wickedness.

2. The root not only is, but grows. It has a vital self-increasing principle. Unless you kill it, you cannot keep it down. So with the sinful disposition in the heart. It is not the existence of the thing merely that we have to dread, but its vitality. The Scripture (Ephesians 2:2-3) speaks of men being dead in sins, and yet walking according to the course of this world. In like manner, though the guilty state of the soul be called death, yet it is a death that lives and grows. It not only bears fruit upward, but strikes root downward; and the more vigorously it shoots its fibres down into the soil, the heavier a harvest of wickedness it bears.

3. Though you may be able to destroy the fruit, and cut down the branches, the root may be beyond your reach. Though the branches be lopped off, and the stem cut down close by the ground, yet the root left in the soil will keep its hold, and send up another stem, and spread out other branches. So with this sin. Much may be done to check its outward exhibition. Many agencies may be brought to bear upon it, which will not only prevent the ripening of the fruit, but will blight the opening blossom, and maim the spreading branches. Many schemes may be tried, and tried successfully, to stop the committing of sins, while the disposition to sin lives as vigorous, and grows as rank as ever in the soul.

II. In the text the root is significantly called A hoot OF BITTERNESS. The analogy of a root suggests the existence, and the life, and the growth, and the power of a principle, without determining whether it be good or bad; but the distinguishing characteristic of the root spoken of is “bitterness.” Everything depends on the nature of the root that is bedded in the soil. There is a plant called the nightshade, which is in some respects like a vine. Like the vine, its branches are slender, and unless supported, they trail upon the ground. Its bunches of fruit, too, are very similar, both in form and colour, to clusters of grapes. Its fruit is a poison. From its nature, it gets the name of the deadly nightshade. Now, this plant may grow beside a vine--may cling to the branches of a vine, and intermingle its clusters of fruit, so that you could scarcely distinguish the one from the other. Nay, more; in such a case the roots of the two plants will

shoot down into the same soil--they will intertwine with each other in the earth--they will drink up the same sap at the same place. It would require a very close examination to distinguish the fibres that belong to each; yet this root converts the sap into delicious food--that into deadly poison. The result does not depend on air and sun, and moisture and earth--these were all the same in this case. The fruit takes its character from the root. If it be a root of bitterness, it turns everything into poison. Such is the distinguishing characteristic of a sinful affection. Our living souls are the seat of many thoughts and emotions they constitute the soil which nourishes many roots. Some roots grow there bearing sweet fruit to the glory of God and the good of men; but they are “the planting of the Lord.” It is the root of bitterness that springs first, and spreads farthest. There are the shattered remnants of much good in the human soul. There are in it many materials which may be turned to good account, when a new heart has been given--a new spirit created. But in all at first, and in many still, a strong one has possession. A bitter root occupies and sucks the soil, wasting its strength in bringing forth death. Pride, envy, worldliness, ungodliness--these, and other roots, pervade the ground, and drain off all its fatness. The natural powers and emotions of the soul--the sap which these roots feed upon--would nourish trees of righteousness, if they were but planted there. There are many precious qualities of mind, efficient for good or for evil, just as they are employed. You have known a man possessed of many good qualities--such qualities as attract and bind to their possessor a wide circle of friends. He is, in the common sense of the term, a good-hearted man. He is generous, and kind, and honest. He will not maliciously resent an injury--he gives liberally of his goods to feed the poor--he renders to every man his due; but he is a drunkard. A bitter root has fastened in that generous soil, and drinks up all its riches. Oh! it is sad to see that strong one keeping possession of a wealthy place. It is sad to see so promising a field exhausted in bearing the filthiest fruit. Avarice is another root of equal bitterness. There is no more pitiable creature on earth than a man whose heart’s warm affections have been sucked out by the lust of gold. The power of understanding and judging, of liking and disliking, of hoping and fearing--all these, as natural capabilities of the human soul, are wielded by the presiding will either on the side of righteousness or the side of sin. The same learning and ardour which Saul of Tarsus employed to waste the Church, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, plied as the instruments of extending and establishing it. Paul had met the Lord in the way, and received into his heart the seed of a new life. This is the one needful

thing. These understandings and memories, and all these natural powers that are now wasted on sin, the same instruments will do for serving God, when the quickening Spirit has implanted the new life within Deuteronomy 29:14-18). The root that beareth gall and wormwood is a heart that turneth away from God; and to that spring of evil must the cure be applied. Although it be “ a root out of a dry ground,” all will be well, if it be not a “root of bitterness.” If the root be holy, so also will the branches be. (W. Arnot.)How bitterness grows

A young girl had but few social opportunities. She fell into habits of excessive self-inspection, and a morbid sensitiveness to criticism. With good gifts, and refined tastes, and careful culture, she began to grow conscious of a kind of superiority to most of those about her. But the absence of lively sympathies fostered reserve and taciturnity, so that few found out or appreciated her real attainments. While her own standard of character was rising, others ceased to care what so indifferent and haughty a spirit might know or be. Presently a sense of injustice began to spring up in her. Each new acquirement only seemed to separate her more and more from her neighbours. Even her equals failed to appreciate the hidden merit. Gradually, as years went on, a silent resentment was kindled. Temper was a little soured; speech grew sarcastic; judgment grew bitter. She revenged herself for neglect by withdrawing further and further from the world. Those of her own sex were alienated, and as to those of the other, they were a little frightened. Very few men value criticism enough to marry it. And so, every way, society loses in the person of this fine capable young woman an ornament and a strength. (T. D.Huntingdon.)

Verse 16-17Hebrews 12:16-17

Essau, who for one morselThe character of Esau:

There are certain features of character which, if they do not exactly enlist our admiration, never fail to secure our goodwill, and an instinctive sympathy with those who possess them.The man who along with his virtues, which by reason of their very nature lift him above many of his fellows, combines a few of those failings which bring him down again to their level, is by far the greatest favourite. Good men are glad to acknowledge his goodness, and for the sake of it are disposed to deal gently with

his inconsistencies. The multitude find that they, too, have a share in him, and are pleased to recognise their own features in such respectable and perhaps unusual company. Now it is just such a character as this of which it is most difficult to form an impartial estimate.’ And it is all the more difficult if the good qualities in question are of that striking sort which almost disarm criticism. For there are qualities that act in such a way. It seems, for instance, almost impossible to resist the impression which energy makes upon our minds, especially the energy that throws itself out upon the broad arena of practical life, and produces visible and manifest results. The same thing holds true, though in a less degree, of all that class of actions which we distinguish by the word “ impulsive.” We pardon a man a great deal for the sake of this particular temperament. If he does what is wrong, it mitigates the wrong that it was done on the spur of the moment, and not by a cool, deliberating wickedness. If he does what is good, it makes the good still better, because goodness that acts spontaneously is more genuine than a habitual calculating virtue. Besides, we give more latitude to impulsive actions, because they break through the routine of things. Hence the popularity of what is vulgarly called dash, a quality we all naturally admire. It serves as a sort of flourish that relieves the monotony of life. And we watch any singular display of it as a man watches a game of chance, knowing there may be some brilliant successes, but just as likely some ruinous catastrophe. The character of Esau, as it is brought before us in Scripture, partakes largely of this element. He was if anything an impulsive man. He had none of those faults which attach themselves to timid and more thoughtful characters, the tendency to equivocate, and compass an end by somewhat doubtful means to bargain, and finesse, and sail close to the wind. A character like this shows, of course, all the more favourably when compared with such as one as that of Jacob. His faults spring, no doubt, from his peculiar temperament, but they are those which we regard with the greatest dislike. His virtues, on the other hand, had none of that spontaneity and freshness which makes an excellence doubly excellent, but were always unpleasantly prudential. They seem to have been developed only by infinite patience and a vast variety of discipline, and not to have come to very much after all. Yet Jacob was the man on whom God’s blessing rested, whose nature was the most susceptible of Divine treatment, and most capable of receiving and transmitting the promise of the covenant. Esau, according to the Scripture, was a profane man, with little or no capacity for the spiritual and unseen, unable to understand it, whose strong

earthly instincts and exuberance of life repelled everything of the sort, or hardly admitted of its approach. On what, then, is our sympathy with Esau grounded? He stands out as the representative of the warmhearted, high-spirited man of the world, whose sins, because they scorn the grosset attributes of meanness, seem little more to us than acts of extravagance. The growths of a rich though wayward nature, they carry along with them a certain savour of its richness, that renders them somewhat less unpalatable. And the fact that now and then he can do most liberal things, be touched with poignancy of sorrow, or rise into an ardour of affection, seems to prove that he cannot be a bad man. It shows he has it in him to throw his sin aside, and rise above it, that there must be an inward fountain of goodness, that but for untoward and embarrassing conditions, would be certain to obtain the ascendency. So we are inclined to argue. But the argument may he a mistake. For what determines the nature of a man’s life, and stamps his character as good or bad, is the course of it in the main. A few glimpses of sunshine, however bright, will not make a fine day, especially if it pours heavily throughout the intervals. The stream that lingers in its deep pools, and doubles on itself in doubtful windings through the plain, is none the less surely seeking for the sea. So we are not to imagine a man good or bad because the level of his life is broken up by occasional deeds of goodness or the reverse. We are to look at the tenor of the whole and discover, if we can, the sovereign motive that governs its drift. Now it is unfortunately true that much generosity and warmth of emotion may co-exist with serious moral weakness, that a man’s nature may break out at times into admirable actions, while its habitual temper is rigidly selfish, nay, that these actions themselves may only be selfishness working in a somewhat unusual way. For what is impulsiveness but the tendency to act at the bidding of one’s own feelings? And to indulge our feelings, irrespective of those of other people, what is that but selfishness? A man who habitually lives for himself will, almost unconsciously, act upon the same principle of selfishness even in those very instances in which he seems to have most thoroughly broken away from it. His good deeds are, in all likelihood, so many acts of expiation by which he tries to make up for cases of neglect. Besides, even apart from such considerations, there is a subtle pleasure in being occasionally better than ourselves, in surprising people, and rising above their expectations, which is only another form of selfishness. It is as much as saying, “See how much more generous I am than you supposed. What an injustice you have done me in concluding I am hard-hearted and inconsiderate!” We must not be deceived, then, by the superficial

attractiveness of the warm-hearted, impulsive type of character, nor forget that exceptional actions only prove their opposite to be the rule. Selfishness may disguise itself in a coat of many colours, and take its own way among a multitude of devices that seem to surround it with a contrary atmosphere, but which are all intended only to make room for it, and allow it to go on without interference. It is only when a man’s life involves him in self-denial; when it recognises the claims of others and the claims of God, and submits to adjust itself faithfully to these; when it gives up its own waywardness, and curtails its freedom, to add to the happiness and well-being of those around him; only, in short, when he bows himself to the yoke of Christ, and begins to burden himself, as He did, with the sins and sorrows, the toils and struggles, of the world--that he learns the first lesson in the school of Christianity, and truly practises the fear of God. But it is not as a selfish but as a profane man Esau is held up as a beacon of warning; and by a profane man is meant one who has no perception of the sanctity of Divine things. But this profaneness simply describes the selfish man’s character on that side of it which is turned towards God. He has no such respect for God as moves him to obedience. He removes religion out of his way as a serious hindrance, or shuts it up within so narrow a compass it never comes into collision with himself. What else can he do, if it only thwarts and annoys him? If it gives him no pleasure, and adds nothing to his resources, is it to be expected that it should be found anywhere except amid the lumber of his life? But there is another reason besides those I have mentioned which has much to do with our sympathy with Esau, and that is his misfortunes. We are apt to look at him as the victim of a fraud, and it seems to us almost a contravention of justice that the impostor should flourish in the favour of God and his victim be disowned and cast aside. But this is a one-sided view of the occurrence and falls short of the truth. No man can be cheated out of a Divine gift against his own will. God does not hold His benefits with so lax a hand, or dispense them with such indifference, as to allow them to be diverted from their destined possessor by the craft or subtilty of man or devil. Esau lost the birthright by his sin, sold it for a mess of pottage, and had himself and not his brother to blame for his calamity. But it was highly characteristic of Esau that he should not have seen this. It is the way of selfish, worldly men to resent exceedingly that their sin should find them out. And having his father on his side, who had the blessing to bestow, it seemed to him a settled thing that he should receive it. The old affair of the pottage was not so serious after all, and it would be absurd to suppose that so trifling a transaction would

interfere with the stated rights of the eldest born. But though hand join in hand iniquity shall not go unpunished, and the conspiracy of sin was broken, and its purpose baffled, by an utterly unprecedented trick. It is a terrible illustration of the truth that as a man sows so shall he also reap; that every sin we commit, instead of passing into the past with the time that witnessed it, remains embedded among the forces of our life, that there it works and spreads, and dissipates its influence, till it brings us face to face with the measure of retribution. But even though it be granted that Esau suffered for his own fault, was not the suffering disproportioned to the sin? Was it not too trifling to be followed by so grievous a penalty? It might have been so if his sin had only consisted in the act that was the immediate occasion of his loss. But no sin stands by itself. And it is not the evil action that makes a man bad, it merely reveals the fact that he is bad. It is the outlet by which the inward wickedness issues’ into broad daylight, and publishes the fact of its existence. Esau was a profane man, not because he sold his birthright; but he sold his birthright because he was profane. And there was nothing for it but to transfer it to some one who should watch over it with becoming pains, and yield himself to be fashioned by the hope of its fulfilment. It happened according to that saying of our Lord, “Unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have.” And so, let us beware of cherishing a spirit of self-indulgence and of indolent yielding to our desires. Your nature may grow so enfeebled by selfishness you will not be able to rouse yourself to the call of God. Some critical moment may arrive, some day of grace, when there shall be set before you with a freer and more abundant entrance than ever the open door of the kingdom of God, and you will be too easy-going to be disturbed, too enervated by indulgence to seize your opportunity. Or, to keep more closely to the tragic example of my text, some long gratified desire may insist on being satisfied at the expense of fidelity to Christ. You may find that in some hour when you have least expected it you are faced with the alternative of denying yourself, or parting for ever with an interest in Him; and if you have not been bearing the Cross and enduring hardness as a good soldier, if you have not been accustoming yourself to sacrifice your own will to the will of God, how terrible the risk that in that hour of everlasting issues you may fail to stand the test, and barter your birthright for a worldly lust! (C. Moinet, M. A.)The relation of animal appetites to spiritual prerogatives

There are three classes of sentient life: first, those which have animal appetites, and no spiritual prerogatives--such are the beasts of the field, dec.; secondly, those which have spiritual prerogatives, and no animal appetites-such, probably, are angels; and thirdly, those that are compounded of both--such are men. In men, these two kinds of power occupy two very different relations; in some--the mass--the animal is the sovereign; in others--the few--the spiritual guides and governs all.

I. ANIMAL APPETITES OFTEN COME INTO COLLISION WITH SPIRITUAL PREROGATIVES.

1. Spiritual independency. 2. Moral approbation. 3. Divine fellowship.

II. ANIMAL APPETITES OFTEN LEAD TO THE SACRIFICE OF SPIRITUAL PREROGATIVES.

1. This is foolish. 2. This is criminal.

III. ANIMAL APPETITES, WHEN THEY LEAD TO THE SACRIFICE OF SPIRITUAL PREROGATIVES, REDUCE MAN TO THE UTMOST DISTRESS. (Homilist.)Esau

I. HIS PROFANENESS IN ITS COMMENCEMENT. Oh, it is a strange parable, that sale of the birthright; a parable fulfilled again and again in the irreligious man selling eternity for time; the man of faith giving all that he now has for a better hope in years to come. It is a parable having its own peculiar lesson for our own days. Now, when natural accomplishments are so highly valued, when intellect, science, energy, skill, win the admiration even of foes; and implicit belief is construed as superstition, a self-denying, meditative life viewed almost as treason to the interests of human fellowship. Now, when even religion is denuded, as much as possible, of everything supernatural; and whilst honour, and benevolence, and generosity are lauded, and a general providence recognised, prayer, meditation, sacramental grace, like the promise of old, are put aside; we call you back to Isaac’s tent, and show you the types of our modern life in his twin sons, and bid you note how the man of religious faith, in spite of many faults, won the eternal love, whilst the man of this world, the free, frank hunter of the desert, brave yet Without reverence, affectionate yet without faith,

became an alien from the commonwealth of Israel; stamped, for a perpetual warning, as the profane person who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

II. HIS PROFANENESS IN ITS FINAL ISSUE. HOW do men live on year after year foregoing religious privileges, forgetting God, and scarcely remember it! The man who has been baptized, and whose conscience tells him that he dare not die as he is--what is he but one who has verily parted with his spiritual birthright? Once he was sure of heaven, now he is sure no longer; nay, if he reflects has little hope of heaven in his present state; where is his birthright? He means to alter before he dies. He intends to win back his inheritance. What is this but Esau, dimly conscious of a loss, yet continuing in the same career which ruined him at the outset, a cunning hunter, and nothing but a cunning hunter still? We must wait till the next world for the “exceeding bitter cry “ from such men, for it is seldom here that the conviction of being lost for ever is experienced. The same carelessness lasts on to the end. There is, indeed, nothing more alarming than the fearlessness with which the majority meet death. Whenever there is manifested anxiety and dread, the minister of Christ knows what to do. But the difficult case to deal with is that which is the most common case; when the man who has never accustomed himself to make much of God and Christ in his health, appears in his sickness utterly without fear, unable to realise the bitter things that are written against him; unable to imagine that he has gone so far astray, and has so far to return. It is as if the habit of treating religion lightly, once contracted, dislocated the whole moral being, that we can never afterwards see, or hear, or taste aright, the powers of the world to come. And so the thoughtful man, who feels what sin is, what God is, what heaven is, must often fear for those who fear not for themselves; and tremble lest the instant of the death pang should be the signal of a terrible awakening--lest, at the moment when this world hears the faint whisper of the dying no longer, the eternal world may be ringing with the loud, bitter cry of a soul just conscious of a birthright lost for ever. (Bp. Woodford.)Esau’s profanity:

It was the contemptuous treatment of that which should have been held sacred and invaluable. It was the selling of station, honour, influence, power, pre-eminence, for a dish of soup and a little brewed. It was the parting with chieftainship at the bidding of an empty stomach. It was the allowing of the animal to swallow up the man. It was sinking the interest of a great future in the little pressing need of the present.

I. THE ELEMENTS OF YOUR DANGER HERE. 1. The first element of danger which I mention is present stress--urgency of

present need. The man who has just risen from a hearty meal and gone out into the street, is under no temptation to steal from the baker’s wagon which stands by the sidewalk. But the case is vastly different when the street-boy, who slept last night in an ash-barrel, and whose lips for twenty-four hours have not tasted food, comes along by the bread-cart. Involuntarily his tired feet halt. His eyes, how wide they open upon those loaves! His mouth, how it waters! Now he looks to the right and the left; up the street, down the street; no one in sight, and his hands spring like a steel-trap upon the nearest loaf. Why? Because he is hungry. So oftentimes do children of a larger growth come unto their critical hour. By misfortune, by loss, by squandering, or by the increasing power of an evil appetite (growing by that it feeds upon), the man’s desire for money has been made fierce, clamorous, raving. And now he is brought into the presence of his coveted boon. Money is before him, within his reach. It is not his own, but it is within sight. Oh, how he wants it! And so the man stands in the presence of his temptation, weak through the power of the craving within him. The next step is soon taken. The exposed man risks the penalty of the law; ventures honour, character, reputation; sells all these at the bidding of his hungry nature. And there is yet another and more vivid view of the working of this same mighty power. Man is born to a nobler birthright than honour or reputation even. In every sinful human being there vests the possible title to a blessed immortality. But the hour of present and pressing indigence bursts upon the man. He comes back from his long chase after satisfying good. He feels that he must have the desire of his heart--must have it now. And then the world offers it--offers it for a price. “Give me your birthright,” she says, “swear it me, and you shall have what you want. Throw away principle, and wealth is yours. Renounce integrity, and here is honour. Sell me conscience, and I give you success.” And the man reasons, Esau like, “Behold, I am at the point of death, and of what use is the birthright to a dead man? Heaven is far in the future, a dim, uncertain good. My title to it is not wealth or honour or success. Better have what I can get now.” “Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lintiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way,”--without his birthright. So the world gives its victim. He eats, he

drinks, he rises up and goes his way; goes his way to meditate upon the words, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

2. The second element in the danger here is the almost omnipotent power of the present. Esau would not have felt his hunger so keenly if the broth had not been before him. Besides, he would have reasoned, “If I must wait until food is prepared by some one, I’ll prepare it myself and keep my birthright.” But the case was, that to Esau’s pressing need Jacob could bring immediate relief, could offer food already prepared. And so he got the birthright; bought it at a low figure, because he was able to pay the price at once. And men always sell at a lower price for cash in hand; and this, whether their merchandise is houses, or lands, or conscience, or character. Take the holders of real estate in our city who wish to sell. They have all of them one price for the buyer who pays all cash, and another and higher price for the buyer who wishes to pay in the future. This is so because the possession of money has value; because there is always more or less uncertainty about promises for the future, whether to pay or to do anything else. And I think I can see this same principle reaching out from this narrow sphere and ramifying all through the conduct of men. A child would rather have one toy to-day than the promise of a dozen to-morrow. And men are but older children. Look at the man who is wrecking his business, his health, and his family with strong drink, He would never pay this fearful price for a distant gratification. The men who are living in the enjoyment of dishonest wealth to-day--of wealth for which they have given their honour, their peace, and their souls--would not have paid this fearful price for riches which should come in a distant day. The uncertainty of the future, the dimness of the distant prize, their own valuation of moral character, would have prevented the foolish and profane transaction. So it is with all sin. It overcomes through the hope, the assurance, of immediate gratification. Heaven is in the future; so is death; so is judgment; and so is God. These all at uncertain distances, while right before them, ready to their hand, is the price of iniquity, the wages of sin. They sell so cheap because they sell for cash.

II. SOME THOUGHTS WHICH SHOULD SAVE A MAN HERE. 1. Today is not all. If the man who, in the midst of his ill-gotten wealth, is now

lying upon the bed of death, had thought of this bed in the far off day of his

temptation, the thought would have saved him. Out of it would have been born such wisdom as this: “The opportunity is most tempting. But I see a long future reaching out beyond it, and I cannot afford to blacken all this.” Oh, take into your hearts this preservative thought--to-day is not all. There is a future coming--a future with its days and its years and its ages. A future with its glory, honour, and immortality. A future with its endless heaven, and its blessed and blessing Father God. Mortgage not this future. Sell it not for a temporary gratification. Throw it not into the mouth of a single hungry hour.

2. There are things more important than the gratification of present desire. Principle is better than prosperity. Some sacrifices you cannot afford to make for any results. There are things which you ought not to sell at any price. They are these--usefulness in the world, peace of conscience, purity of heart, the favour of God; a good life, which shall not blanch or quiver in a single nerve, when Death shall lay his hand upon it.

3. The sale of the birthright is irrevocable. There are thousands of the world’s successful ones longing for peace and for happiness, who would give all they have in the world for the approval of conscience and the blessing of God. But it is too late. These things which they desire are the fruits of character; and, having bartered this, these sorrowful ones cannot have its fruits. Neither can tears buy these fruits. No one ever has sold, no one ever can sell, duty for a price, and keep happiness. (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.)

The profane exchange:The history of the wicked, as well as of the righteous, is useful. By their crimes

we are cautioned; and we are warned by their miseries. Anxious for our welfare, the Scripture addresses our fear as well as our hope, and holds forth instances of Divine vengeance, as well as proofs of Divine mercy.

I. Let us view Esau in his original state--and COMPARE YOUR PRIVILEGES WITH HIS PRIVILEGES. To stand supreme in the house of the patriarch Isaac was no trifling prerogative: his house was “the house of God, and the gate of heaven.” To the birthright belonged pre-eminence over the other branches of the family. Such were the prospects of Esau. And what are yours? It is true, you were not born in the house of Isaac; but you have been brought forth in a Christian country in a “land the Lord careth for,” where “the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” You have the Bible; you have Sabbaths; you have sanctuaries; you have ordinances; you have ministers; you have the throne of

grace; you have the promise of the Holy Ghost: and all things appertaining to your everlasting happiness are now ready. You possess much; but all your present advantages are not to be compared with those glorious hopes to which you are called by the gospel. You have the prospect of becoming a “kind of firstfruits of His creatures”: a birthright which comprehends a “better country” than Canaan, even heaven. But this pearl is not for the swine, who, ignorant of its value, tramples it under foot; but for those who, conscious of its incomparable worth, prefer it to everything else, and, like the wise merchant, are willing to sell all to buy it. These high advantages may be sacrificed.

II. Let us therefore view Esau in the surrender of his privileges, and COMPARE YOUR SIN WITH HIS SIN. “For one morsel of meat he sold his birthright.” It is obvious that the loss was voluntary and base.

1. It was voluntary. No one forced it from him--he sold it. And who compels you to abandon your hopes of heaven? Who forces you into perdition? You say that you live in a world of enticing objects; that the dominion of sense is strong; that it is not very easy to resist the impulse of the moment. But is it impossible to resist? Have not many overcome, though placed in the same circumstances, and possessed of the same nature with you? What is goodness untried? Have you not reason as well as appetite? Is not grace attainable by you? Is it not sufficient for you?

2. It was equally base. For what is the price of the birthright? An empire? A crown? A crown sparkles in the eye of ambition: a throne is the highest pinnacle of human pride: nothing like it--but a despicable trifle, “one morsel of meat”--“a mess of pottage”--the dearest dish, says Bishop Hall, that was ever purchased, except the forbidden fruit. But I feel ready to dispute this. Are not you more than like him? Do not you surpass him in folly? For what do you sell the treasures of the soul and eternity, but a thing of nought, a fleeting indulgence, a false point of honour, an imaginary interest? Here is your eternal infamy and disgrace! “Ye have sold yourselves,” says the prophet, “for nought.”

III. LET US CONSIDER ESAU IN HIS MISERY, AND COMPARE YOUR DOOM WITH HIS DOOM. Nothing could be more affecting than his expostulations, and his bitter cries, but to no purpose does he urge his petition or press his father to retract: the benediction is pronounced, and Isaac acquiesces in the decision of heaven. Are you disposed to pity him? Yea, rather, weep for yourselves. Your loss is inestimably greater than his loss. After all his

disappointments he had something left, and could entertain himself with the diversions of the field; but your condition will be destitute of all resources. Sin unavoidably brings a man sooner or later to lamentation and regret. Let us also remark, that there is a repentance which is unavailing. Paul tells us of a “sorrow of the world which worketh death.” The eyes which sin closes, eternity will open. But then grief comes too late. The blessing once lost, cannot be recovered. (W. Jay.)Esau’s sensuality and profanity:

Esau was, undoubtedly, sensual, or addicted to gross carnal pleasures. His wild, roving character prepares us to find in him imperious passions and an unscrupulous will. The steady tradition of the Jews is that he was an abandoned profligate; and this is sufficiently borne out by what we read (Genesis 26:34-35). Again, Esau was profane; as, in truth, all sensual persons are. Show me a rake, and though an oath may never be heard to escape his lips, I will pronounce that man profane; for his sins belong to that class which, more than any other, eat out all fear of God from the human heart, and harden and petrify it into the most reckless godlessness. Esau’s profanity sufficiently appears in the brief account of it we have in Genesis 25:32-34, and in the flippant levity with which he sold his birthright, clinching the transaction with an oath which he never meant to keep--thus consistently blending blasphemy and fraud. And the chartered treasure he sold was no commonplace one. It was a birthright not only to Canaan, but to all the privileges and distinguished honours of the Messianic people. It was a birthright, therefore, in which the spiritual interests of Esau’s children, and children’s children, were most vitally implicated. Of this matchless and marvellous honour, Esau flippantly said, under a passing sensation of hunger, “Behold I am at the point to die (which, as we have already said, was not true), and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” Well might the inspired historian add, “Thus Esau despised his birthright.” A passing sense of hunger, which any common soldier would scorn or forget in the pursuit of honour; which the pettiest trader can forget in the eager pursuit of gain; which Esau himself would often despise in the keen urgency of the chase, was now, in his spiritual balance, to make the proudest birthright the world ever saw to kick the beam! What mattered it to profane Esau whether the blood of the chosen holy seed, or of a heathen predatory tribe, was at the time flowing in his veins? Thus the inspired writer has only too good reasons for affirming that Esau was both sensual and profane; and that it was these bad qualities that led him to barter away his birthright, yea, and

to pour the utmost contempt upon it by weighing against it a paltry mess of lentile pottage. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)Sensual and profane

Every gospel rejecter, as such, is both sensual and profane. He is sensual, for he is “a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God.” He is profane, for he trifles year after year, though death’s darts are flying around him, with the tremendous realities of duty and destiny. So sensual is he that “the pleasures of sin for a season” bulk larger in his eyes than “the pleasures” that are “for evermore.” So profane is he that “he worships and serves the creature more than the Creator,” whom he dethrones from his conscience and banishes from his heart. Do not cavil at the terms; for if you are still a gospel rejecter, the terms fit you; they mean you. One unbeliever may indignantly say, I am not sensual; another may say, I am not profane; no matter, your place lies somewhere between them; and to flee from one is just to fall into the other, cross and recross each other as you will. You do not need to be an abandoned profligate in order to be sensual: you do not need to be a blasphemer in order to be profane. If there is anything you prefer to God, to Christ, to a present salvation, you are both. And oh remember, that as any object, though only an inch square, if kept over the eye, is large enough to keep the whole world of vision, and all its enjoyments, out of the mind, so a very trifling indulgence, clung to in spite of conscience, is large enough to keep the boundless tide of salvation out of your soul. Lovers of pleasures, beware! Oh, remember that “the pleasures of sin “ will, ere long, be a phrase of greatly altered meaning. It has some meaning now; but ere long the tie, such as it is, that binds pleasure and sin will be in a large degree finally ruptured. There will be pleasure and there will be sin, but the great gulf will roll between. In the preponderating point of view, all the pleasure will be in heaven, but there will be no sin there; all the sin will be in woe, but there will be no pleasure there. (Ibid.)The unhallowed bargain

I. ESAU’S SALE. 1. An instance of the foolish behaviour of men. 2. An instance of thoughtless words bringing serious realities. The wise man

never speaks at random. The prudent is not overtaken to betray himself by the feelings of the moment.

3. An instance of the little value often set upon the most precious blessings. 4. An instance of the sensual prevailing over the ideal. 5. An instance of the irretrievable character of wrong choice.

II. JACOB’S PURCHASE. 1. What he lost. 2. What he gained. The birthright--but with certain penalties attached. It was

got by fraud, and the curse of the fraud clung to it. Learn:

1. The folly of rash and hasty impulses. 2. The folly of trifling with religious matters. 3. The folly of dishonesty. (Homilist.)

The price of birthrights:There is only one price that can be had for a birthright, and that is “one morsel

of bread.” There are no higher figures; there are no better bargains. If he had received ten thousand worlds they would have constituted but one morsel of meat, when in the other hand there was a birthright. The devil has no more in his counter; the enemy has no more at the bank; he pays you all he can pay you when you sell your birthright--one gulp, one morsel, one flash of pleasure, and then hell! Nothing more is possible. Then why haggle with the old serpent the devil? Why ask for threehalfpence more for your soul? The whole transaction totals up to one morsel of meat. That is all he gave to the mother of the world. She and he struck the first bargain about birthrights. So it comes and goes, age after age, the same temptation, the same bargain, the same price, the same perdition! See if these things be not true in experience, in every degree of the circle of life’s tragedy. You will have pleasure, you will gratify a passion: do it; having done it, what have you got in your hand, in your mouth? In the very indulgence of the passion you consume the compensation; when all is over there is nothing left but fire, shame, reproach, the sting of hell. This is inevitable; this is the law of Providence, the law of experience, the law of justice. The highest rights can be parted with. A man can get rid of his birthright. A man can deplete his soul of itself. One would think it would be impossible to part with anything but that which is material, commercial, arithmetical; but history--and may we not add personal consciousness?--testifies to the fact that we sell our souls. Why do we not say so to ourselves plainly and frankly? Why not confess the crime of suicide? This is the intolerable agony of remorse. If we had sold a hand we could make it up again in some form, but when we have sold the brain, the heart, the soul, how can we recover such birthrights? “In the day then eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” That word “ die” has never been explained. It must be terrible beyond the power of language to express, for God hath no pleasure in it; and if

He of the infinite heart cannot make room for death, who shall describe it in words or figure it in sufficient symbols? There are possessions without which we could not be men, without which we Could not begin to live, and without which we could not receive the ministries of nature. Is a man deaf? then he cannot receive the ministry of music. Is a man blind? then he is excluded from the ministry of light and colour and form and all that peculiarity of distributed magnitude which constitute the very apocalypse and wizardry of form. And you cannot represent to blindness what a beam of light is like. So you may have got rid of your religious sensitiveness, and now you may say about the hymn-book out of which you used to sing that you can find nothing in it. The book is not dead, but your spiritual sensitiveness is extinct. So with the Divine revelation. You were once accustomed to delight in it, you meditated therein day and night, and now any last critic who is dealing in the expectorations of critics who are already ashamed of their folly can tempt you to leave the Church. Has the Church changed? Not at all. Is the Bible so revised as to have ejected its own wisdom and made room for sonic man’s folly? No. Then what is the explanation of it? The birthright is gone, the soul’s power of vision, the soul’s responsiveness to appealing heavens and all the nurturing ministries of nature. You can exhaust yourselves. You have sold your birthright. What things are there that may be called birthrights? There are some birthrights that are moral, others that are intellectual, and others that are social. Surely we come into something; surely there is some law of inheritance and some law and discipline of succession. We cannot get rid of instinct, much older than logic; we cannot get rid of aspirations that have no words, God’s own songs in the soul. Let us one and all take care lest we part with our birthright on any terms; and let us especially remember that whatever the terms may be in figures they total up into one morsel of meat in reality. It is a morsel, and it is one morsel, and it never can be more under any circumstances. What is the relation of Christ to these Esaus? Has Christianity anything to say to such poor merchantmen? Christianity first begins with a revelation of their folly; Christianity shows them that if a man should gain the whole world and lose his birthright, he has gained nothing, he has profited nothing, he is a loser by all the transaction. What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his birthright? (J. Parker, D. D.)Wisdom of temptation:

The devil doth not know the hearts of men; but he may feel their pulse, know their temper, and so, accordingly, can apply himself. As the husbandman knows

what seed is proper to sow in such soil; so Satan, finding out the temper, knows what temptation is proper to sow in such a heart. That way the tide of a man’s constitution runs, that way the wind of temptation blows. Satan tempts the ambitious man with a crown, the sanguine man with beauty, the covetous man with a wedge of gold. He provides savoury meat, such as the sinner loves. (T. Watson.)Dislike to sensuality

His (Antisthenes’) contempt of all sensual enjoyment was expressed in his saying, “I would rather be mad than sensual.” (O. H. Lewes.)Ruined men

Ruined castles are picturesque, they add charm to a landscape--alas I we cannot say the same of ruined men. Sin causing degradation

When the followers of Ulysses degraded themselves by the misuse of pleasures, until they fell to the level of the brutes, it is said that Circe, touching them with her wand, turned them into swine. She brought to the surface the inner ugliness; revealed the animal that ruled within. (H. O. Mackey.)The soul bartered

Esau sold his inheritance for pottage. Lysimachus, besieged by the Goths, suffered so severely from thirst that he finally offered his kingdom to his foes for a supply of water. Having slaked his thirst, lie cried: “Oh, wretched man, who for a little joy has lost so great a kingdom!” (Preacher’s Cabinet.)A bad bargain

Said a thoughtless young man to his sister under deep concern for her soul: “I’ll give you five dollars if you will quit this nonsense and be yourself again.” She took the paltry gift, lived without religion and died without hope. (Preacher’s Cabinet.)

No place of repentanceNo reversal

I. THAT DESPISED AT ONE TIME IS SOUGHT AT ANOTHER. II. THE VALUE OF SPIRITUAL BLESSING DISCOVERED WHEN

UNATTAINABLE. The habit forms the character, Rejection becomes permanent, e.g., an icicle a foot long is formed drop by drop. So repeated indifference forms the permanent state in which it becomes impossible to seek a blessing.

1. Warning here to the indifferent, rash, profane; e.g., Saul offering sacrifice and losing a kingdom.

2. Warning to the hardened. An old man said, concerning religion, “There was a time, sir, when I might have turned, it is no use now. I am past even thinking about it.”

3. A warning to procrastinators. There are those who believe, but who will not act. Fable of the angel and hermit who constantly saw an old man adding from the wood to his bundle of sticks, and who could not lift and carry it.

4. See your birthright and take the Bible as your possession. Make it, as Hedley Vicars did, by placing a Bible on his table in his quarters, the sign of allegiance to Christ. If this were the first time some heard, there might be hope of some influence being brought to bear. Many times heard, and hardening following, the last opportunity will come when the chance of repentance will be gone. That time is not come if a penitent spirit is now possessed. Christ will grant forgiveness to every penitent soul. (H. De Lynne.)

Things we never get overThere is an impression in almost every man’s mind that somewhere in the

future there will be a chance where he can correct all his mistakes. Live as we may, if we only repent in time, God will forgive us, and then all will be as well as though we had never committed sin. My discourse shall come in collision with that theory. I shall show you that there is such a thing as unsuccessful repentance; that there are things done wrong that always stay wrong, and for them you may seek some place of repentance, but never find it.

1. Belonging to this class of irrevocable mistakes is the folly of a misspent youth. We may look back to our college days and think how we neglected chemistry, or geology, or botany, or mathematics. We may be sorry about it all our days. Can we ever get the discipline or the advantage that we would have had had we attended to those duties in early life? A man wakes up at forty years of age and finds that his youth has been wasted, and he strives to get back his early advantages. Does he get them back? “Oh!” he says, “if I could only get those times back again, how I would improve them!” You will never get them back. When you had a boy’s arms, and a boy’s eyes, and a boy’s heart, you ought to have attended to those things. A man says at fifty years of age: “I do wish I could get over these habits of indolence.” When did you get them? At twenty or twenty-five years of age. You cannot shake them off. They will hang to you to the very day of your death. I said to a minister of the gospel last Sabbath night at

the close of the service: “Where are you preaching now?” “Oh!” he says, “I am not preaching. I am suffering from the physical effects of early sin. I can’t preach now; I am sick.” A consecrated man he now is, and he mourns bitterly over early sins; but that does not arrest their bodily effects. The simple fact is, that men and women often take twenty years of their life to build up influences that require all the rest of their life to break down. When you tell me that a man is just beginning life, I tell you that he is just closing it. The next fifty years will not be of as much importance to him as the first twenty.

2. In this same category of irrevocable mistakes I put all parental neglect. We begin the education of our children too late. By the time they get to be ten or fifteen we wake up to our mistakes and try to eradicate this bad habit of the child; but it is too late. That parent who omits in the first ten years of the child’s life to make an eternal impression for Christ, never makes it. The child will probably go on with all the disadvantages which might have been avoided by parental faithfulness. When I was in Chamouni, Switzerland, I saw in the window of one of the shops a picture that impressed my mind very much. It was a picture of an accident that occurred on the side of one of the Swiss mountains. A company of travellers, with guides, went up some very steep places--places which but few travellers attempted to go up. They were, as all travellers are there, fastened together with cords at the waist, so that if one slipped the rope would hold him--the rope fastened to the others. Passing along the most dangerous point, one of the guides slipped, and they all slipped down the precipice; but after awhile one more muscular than the rest struck his heels into the ice and stopped; but the rope broke, and down, hundreds and thousands of feet, the rest went. And so I see whole families bound together by ties of affection, and in many cases walking on slippery places of worldliness and sin. The father knows it and the mother knows it, and they are bound all together. After awhile they begin to slide down, steeper and steeper, and the father becomes alarmed and he stops, planting his feet on the “Rock of Ages.” He stops, but the rope breaks, and those who were tied fast to him by moral and spiritual influences once, go over the precipice. Oh l there is such a thing as coming to Christ soon enough to save ourselves, but not soon enough to save others.

3. In this category of irrevocable mistakes I place also the unkindness done to the departed. When I was a boy, my mother used to say to me sometimes: “De Witt, you will be sorry for that when I am gone.” Oh, if we could only get back those unkind words; those unkind deeds. If we could only recall them; but you cannot get them back. You might bow down over the grave of that loved one, and cry, and cry. The white lips would make no answer.

4. There is another sin that I place in the class of irrevocable mistakes, and that is lost opportunities of getting good. Esau has sold his birthright, and there is not wealth enough in the treasure-houses of heaven to buy it back again. What does that mean? It means that if you are going to get any advantage out of this Sabbath-day, you will have to get it before the hand wheels around on the clock to twelve to-night. It means that though other chariots may break down or drag heavily, this one never drops the brake, and never ceases to run. It means that while at other feasts the cup may be passed to us, and we may reject it, and yet after awhile take it, the cup-bearers to this feast never give us but one chance at the chalice, and rejecting that, we shall “ find no place for repentance, though we seek it carefully with tears.”

5. There is one more class of sins that I put in this category of irrevocable offences, and that is lost opportunity of usefulness. There comes a time when you can do a good thing for Christ. It comes only once. Your business partner is a proud man. In ordinary circumstances say to him; “Believe in Christ,” and he will say; “You mind your business and I’ll mind mine.” But there has been affliction in the household. His heart is tender. He is looking around for sympathy and solace. Now is your time. Speak, or for ever hold your peace. There is a time in farm life when you plant the corn and when you sow the seed. Let that go by, and the farmer will wring his hands while other husbandmen are gathering in their sheaves. When an opportunity for personal repentance or of doing good passes away, you may hunt for it, you cannot find it. You may fish for it, it will not take the hook. You may dig for it, you cannot bring it up. I stand before those who have a glorious birthright. Esau’s was not so rich as yours. Sell it once and you sell it for ever. The world wants to buy it. Satan wants to buy it. Listen for a moment to these brilliant offers, and it is gone. (De Witt Talmage.)

No remedy:

In the action of every natural law there is a point up to which transgression is punished with a lenient hand that has in it provision for reparation upon repentance and reformation; but beyond that point you come to a line of facts where it makes no difference how sorry you feel, nor what you do, there is no remedy. There is a point beyond which violations of natural law involve suffering that is absolutely permanent. Our children understand this in respect to some things. A child, before it has attained any considerable age, knows that though he may fall down three or four stairs without serious injury, it cannot fall down a precipice three or four hundred feet and survive. If we go up a step higher we come to those silent, unwritten, unthought-of laws, that connect us one with another, in families, in societies, and in states, that are observed with benefit, and violated with regrets and penalties. A man may do many mean, wicked, and cruel things, and get over it. But there are some things which, if a man does once, and is found out, where social laws prevail, he will never recover from as long as he lives. Men may break down under trust and confidence in social connections, and never be able to build up again a state of things that will lead men to trust them. The same is true in economic laws, upon which business and property depend. Not a man lives that does not make mistakes in business. But some mistakes a man may make to-day, and correct to-morrow, and not seem to be a loser in consequence of them. If a man drives a heavily laden wain along the road, and a side-board cracks, he goes on, and the accident does not make much difference; but if an axletree breaks, it makes a great deal of difference. As when a ship is at sea without a forge with which to make a new crank--if the crank breaks, it is broken for the voyage; so in business there are some things that a man cannot do twice, for the reason that the first time kills him. The same is true of moral laws, or those that regulate influence, position, trust, among men. There are some violations of moral law that only limit and hinder men’s comfort and usefulness. There are some violations of moral law that put a man out of joint with society, but not so but that the disaster in time may be remedied. And there are some violations of moral law that destroy a man hopelessly, so that there can be no place found for repentance, though it be sought carefully with tears. In each of these departments we come to a line on one side of which repentance will work change and benefit, and on the other side of which it will have no influence whatsoever. Consider, then, some of the things which repentance can but very little change, or change not at all.

1. First, there are bitter injuries that we inflict upon others, which no man can follow after, nor in any wise change. And yet, we are responsible for them. With your tongue you may hew down a man’s reputation, and the things you have said will torment him to the very end of his days. You may afterwards see your error, you may go to the man and confess the wrong, and you may go to those to whom you have spoken ill of him, and say, “I have learned contrary things; I was false: and now I speak the truth to his credit”; but you cannot hunt slanderers. You might as well try to hunt all the flies that are abroad, or all the mosquitoes that covet your blood, in summer. The man that once lets loose these flying, stinging insects, may be as sorry as he pleases, but his repentance will not remedy the evil.

2. Parallel with these, although differing from them, are those things by which men wound the hearts of those whom they should shield. Your anger may sting venomously. Your cruel pride may do a whole age’s work in a day. You cannot take back the injuries that you have done to those whose hearts lie throbbing next to yours. Ah! when winter has frozen my heliotropes, it makes no difference that the next morning thaws them out. There lie the heliotropes--a black, noisome heap; and it is possible for you to chill a tender nature so that no thawing can restore it. You may relent, but frost has been there, and you cannot bring back freshness and fragrance to the blossom. It Is a terrible thing for a man to have the power of poisoning the hearts of others, and yet carry that power carelessly. He cannot find place for repentance, though he seeks it carefully with tears.

4. You may have injured, defrauded, and even betrayed men in their worldly estate, and in some cases it will be in your power to make reparation; but in many cases it will not be in your power to make reparation. And here is one of those things that you do not know anything about. It is as if a man should amuse himself by sitting in a window of his house, and shooting arrows into the street, without troubling himself to see whom they smote. He could not tell whom he hit, or what mischief he wrought. Now thousands of men are dealing in life in such ways that they shoot arrows of misfortune at their fellow-men. Men practise what is called fraud; but they do not watch the results of their fraudulent deeds, and they do not know anything about them. I do not doubt that many of every man’s troubles and misfortunes may be traced to his own conduct; but I am convinced that a large proportion of the misfortunes and troubles that

afflict society may be traced to the heedless, dishonest, and wicked ways of worldly men. Now, when a man is brought to a condition in which he sees that he has done wrong, and says, “I have organised and carred on a business whose effects are pernicious, I am sorry I went into it, and I will quit it at once,” he may quit it, but he cannot wipe out its effects. They are irreparable. It is a fearful thing for a man to stand on debatable ground, where the question of right and wrong is held in perpetual suspense. Under such circumstances a man may be spending his whole life in the production of mischiefs to be revealed to him hereafter, when he will have no power to recall them.

5. And this leads me still more particularly and solemnly to say that men stand connected with each other in methods that lead to the most awful destruction. As an apple, touched with rot, will, simply by lying its cheek alongside of the glowing, blushing cheek of a sound apple, cause that sound apple to decay; so it is in the power of a man, if his morals are tainted, to damage the morals of another man merely by being with him. He is your disciple till he is drawn into evil; but the moment he is fascinated by it he ceases to be your disciple. Suppose I should preach the gospel in some gambling saloon of New York, and suppose a man should come out convicted of his wickedness, and confess it before God, and pray that he might be forgiven. Forgiveness might be granted to him, so far as he was individually concerned. But suppose he should say, “O God, not only restore to me the joys of salvation, but give me back the mischief that I have done, that I may rule it out.” Why, there was one man that shot himself: what are you going to do for him? A young man came to Indianapolis, when I was pastor there, on his way to settle in the West. He was young, and very self-confident. While there, he was robbed, in a gambling saloon, of fifteen hundred dollars--all that he had. He begged to be allowed to keep enough to take him home to his father’s house, and he was kicked out into the street. It led to his suicide. I know the man that committed the foul deed. He used to walk up and down the street. Oh, how my soul felt thunder when I met him! If anything lifts me up to the top of Mount Sinai, it is to see one man wrong another. Now suppose this man should repent? Can he ever call back that suicide? Can he ever carry balm to the hearts of the father and mother and brothers and sisters of his unfortunate victim? Can he ever wipe off the taint and disgrace that he has

brought on the escutcheon of that family? No repentance can spread over that. And yet how many men there are that are heaping up such transgressions! (H. W. Beecher.)

Lost blessings:Some blessings which, when lost, are lost for ever.

1. Opportunities for an education. 2. Purity. Sin may be forgiven, but the memory remains. We can have

absolute purity only once. 3. Means of grace. We may improve the present, but the means unimproved

in the past are for ever lost. 4. Opportunities for doing good. Present work will not make good past

neglect. 5. The blessings of a Christian home in childhood. 6. A soul finally lost. There is a time beyond which there is no redemption.

The time will come when you will seek these blessings with tears, but it will be too late--for ever too late. (W. M. Hamma, D. D.)

No going back:There is an old fairy tale about a knight who was riding along a dangerous

road. It was dark and lonely, and there were many wild beasts and robbers along the way. So he thought he would turn back, and see if he could not find another road, which would be less dark and dangerous. But when he turned and looked behind, what did he see? All the road that he had ridden on had disappeared, and at his horse’s heels there was a gulf, so deep that he could not see to the bottom. And so it is in our life. There is no possibility of going back in it. We can never undo what we have done. We use each moment as it comes, either well or ill, and then it is gone, and we can never recall it. Irretrievable loss

I once had for a brief companionship a sweet friend, a relative, on a visit where I was residing. We used to go out rowing together. She had a way of dallying with her hand in the water over the side of the boat. One time she lost all the rings off from her fingers in an instant. Out of sight of course hopelessly they fell to the bottom. But whenever we rowed across that place again she would gaze restlessly over the edge, trying to search the very lowest depths of the lake. I have even seen her suddenly bare her arm, as if she had caught a gleam of the jewels down in among the weeds, and was going to grasp after them yet l It is a great mockery, this clutching after youth and hope and joy and vanished

ambition, when one had come to be an elderly and weather-beaten man. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)A bitter wail:

How bitter is the wail of the mighty Mirabeau, “If I had but character, if I had but been a good man, if I had not degraded my life by sensuality, and my youth by evil passion, I could have saved France!”

Many a man has felt the same; he has clipped his own wings, he has suffered to be shorn away the sunny locks of the Nazarite who once lay weeping upon his shoulders, and wherein would have lain his strength. Lost opportunities

A famed German preacher tells that he began life as assistant to a careless old minister. Often he saw the grey-headed man pacing sadly up and down the garden, and overheard him saying, “Oh, that God would give me back my past years!” (J. Wells, M. A.)Esau’s tears:

Those tears of Esau, the sensuous, wild, impulsive man, almost like the cry of some “trapped creature,” are amongst the most pathetic in the Bible. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)A life lost for eighteenpence!

Some time ago a ship went down, having struck a hidden reef. Fortunately, unlike the sad case of the Teution the other day, there was time enough to get the passengers and crew into the boats, which safely held off from the foundering vessel. Just before the last boat started, the captain and mate, having seen that all were safe, stood upon the gangway ready to leave the ship. She was fast sinking--no time to be lost. The mate said to the captain, “I have left my purse below; let me go and get it.” “Man,” replied the other, “you have no time for that; jump at once.” “Just a moment, captain--I can easily get it”; and away the mate rushed below. But in that moment the ship went creeping down. I hear the gurgling flood! The captain has barely time to save himself, when, swirling in the awful vortex, the vessel disappears i By and by the body of the mate was found, and in his stiffened hand was tightly grasped the fatal purse. When the purse was opened, what do you think it contained? Eighteenpence! And for that paltry sum he risked and lost his life.

Verses 18-29

Verses 18-24Hebrews 12:18-24

The mount that might be touchedSinai and Zion

I.CHRISTIANITY IS A SPIRITUAL, NOT A MATERIAL, DISPENSATION. “The mount that might be touched”--a palpable mountain: the words indicate that the religion thereon proclaimed was a mass of ritual, legal service, and physical endurance; and not that spiritual surrender, and inner life of holiness, essentially belonging to the gospel. The apostle having elaborated this idea, shows that Christians have left behind them the barren Arabian mount, and in approaching God have increased the spirituality of their religion.

II. THOUGH CHRISTIANITY IS SPIRITUAL IN ITS NATURE, IT EMPLOYS MATERIAL FORMS AS ADJUNCTS. Sinai has given place to Zion. We have our material forms, but they are subordinate, not primary: bodies, not souls: servants, not lords.

III. SINAI AND ZION ARE ONLY MARKS OF PROGRESS, NOT FINAL DESTINATIONS. The home is further onward. Our past victories are only earnests of a universal conquest. Lessons:

1. Privilege is the measure of responsibility. 2. There is no limit to progress in love and knowledge. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The sensuous and the spiritual:All things are capable of being intensified by contrast. There is no colour so

bright but it may be made to look doubly so, by placing it by the side of its opposite. There is no beauty so exquisite but it may be made to appear more beautiful, by nearness to the unlovely and deformed. We should not know half the cheeriness of the day, if it were not for the gloom of night. There are some sculptured figures in St. Peter’s, at Rome, which are reduced, to the eye of the beholder, to a third of their real size, by the vastness of everything around them. One half, and sometimes more, of the pleasure of the things that please us comes of the sorrows we have known. Whose are the eyes that greet the light of the morning with the greatest eagerness? Surely, the eyes of those who have watched all the darkness of the night. Whose rest is the sweetest, if not theirs who have toiled the hardest through the day? Who were they whose shout in heaven was like the sound of many waters, as they said: “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb”? It was the voice of them

which had come out of great tribulation. And who was the man who seemed best to understand, and most to revel in, the freedom and love of the gospel, as a system of salvation? Why, it was the man who had most heartily yielded himself up to the whole influence of the former dispensation, and most conscientiously kept his neck in its yoke. And what was the spirit of the first dispensation, as contained in these words? Is it not this?--It was sensuous; it was artificial; it was based on fear. Whilst the great and blessed character of the second is that it is spiritual, it is real, and it is based on love.

I. FROM BEGINNING TO END, JUDAISM WAS AN APPEAL TO SENSE. It was God’s most merciful accommodation of His revelation of Himself and of His will to the necessities of man’s weakness and ignorance. Sinai was designed to he, and was, a splendid Divine answer to a few of the deepest questions of the whole human soul--“Is there a God? And have we anything to do with Him? And what? And will He dwell with us here, upon the earth?” The true answer, Divinely written, at the first, upon the heart and conscience and intelligence of man; ay, written, too, on every leaf of nature’s living page, in golden letters of the sunlight, in silver gleamings from the moon and stars, sharp graven on the mountain edges, on azure page of heaven, had faded from man’s heart and eye and ear. “Is there a God?” said the restless, troubled heart of man. And so, in His own time and way, God gave the answer Himself; and that answer was Sinai. Now look! Yon cloud! It is the robe of Deity. Doubt you? Then hark! And see! Those thunders and sharp lightning flashes are the tramping of His heralds, and the flashing of their spears. Only a storm, say you? Then hark again! What warrior blast is that? So piercing shrill, that, like a steeled sword, it darts through every heart--a blade of fear--and makes the stoutest tremble like a leaf. And then, more awful still, a voice, a voice of words--but not an earthly voice, of human words. The voice of very God. And so God answered these great questions of the human heart. There it was! A great, sensuous thing, that could not but make its own impression on those who saw and heard it, and, through them, might gain the ear and heart of posterity and all the world. And by as much as what we see impresses us more deeply than what we only hear, by so much was this people’s heart more deeply touched than by any simpler revelation of the truth. But because it was sensuous, it was artificial, unreal. As an allegory wraps up a truth in beauteous, but concealing folds; as a picture reveals the countenance of your friend, and yet is not himself, and cannot be more than a miserable substitute for himself; so, all this was not God; it was not even the likeness of God, it was but

the shadow of God. And so again, because it was sensuous and artificial, it was terrible. It is of no use to appeal to the reason of a child, or of a savage, or of a man utterly under the dominion of his senses; you appeal to what is not, or to what has lost its power to act. You must, then, appeal to some lower part of his nature; to his self-interest, if he is capable of perceiving it, if not, to his fear. Now what was it that made it necessary for God to reveal Himself and His will to the Jews in a sensuous and artificial way? It was because they were not susceptible of the higher way. They were children, and wanted to see in order to believe. Ay, they were children morally, subject to great temptation, and God wanted them for their own sake to obey Him, and to worship Him; and so, in the first instance, He laid the foundations for their obedience in terrors.

He bound them to Himself by the bands of fear, and holding them thus He then, in the after history of the nation, began to draw them to Himself with the cords of love, the bands of a man. So they came “to the mount,” &c; to the sensuous, the artificial, the terrible.

II. Now, in the second place, let us view the contrast, in all its particulars, which marks THE DISPENSATION UNDER WHICH WE ARE PLACED.

1. All is spiritual. At the first, indeed, it pleased God so far to accommodate His ways to the wants of humanity in this respect, as to give us the truth in a sensible, bodily form. “When the fulness of time was come,” &c. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” &c. And so there was enacted, down here on the earth, once for all, the splendid mystery of the incarnation and the crucifixion and the resurrection. Jesus Christ is the full and complete answer to all those questions that man ever had asked or ever could ask about himself, and God, and all other spiritual facts. But after he had looked for a little while at the new Temple, and the new Priest, and the new law, and the new sacrifice--long enough to feel and see the Divine splendour that was in it, without fully comprehending what it was--it was taken up boldly into the heavenly, that men might know to the full what it was that had been amongst them. But mark you! When it was done, there was not a vestige of the sensuous left. The Holy of Holies was an empty shrine; the very temple was suffered to be thrown down so that not one stone was left upon another; ay, Jerusalem itself, the centre of the whole of the previous system, was desecrated, and has ever since been heathen ground; and the very Jews, the chosen people, the medium of the former revelation, ceased to be a nation, and were scattered among the

nations of the earth. And what, then, have we in its place? We have a history, a record, a book, and nothing else. That is to say, we have the truth in its purest, simplest form. The world a temple, thrown open to all mankind; worship possible everywhere, at every time. Would you see God now? Look on the face of Christ, in the mirror of the book, and that is all that you can have. Would you go to God now? Kneel where you are, and He is there, to hear you and to bless.

2. All is real now. There is no exaggeration. Nothing artificial. Christ is the express image of the Father. I do not say that it is the whole truth about God, that we shall come to have some day, when this veil of flesh has been dissolved; but it is all that we can bear.

3. It is as loving and as winning as Sinai was terrible. It makes no appeal to our fears; only to our reason and our love. He is the tender Shepherd of the sheep, come to seek the lost. He is the Father’s plaintive pleading with His rebellious child. He is the outstretched hand of God to every repenting sinner. He is the utterer of a grand amnesty to all the world who will receive it. He lays His Cross athwart the threatening law, and takes away its curse. He is the rebuke of all men’s guilt-born fears about God, and all their hard thoughts of Him. In a word, He is the incarnate love of God pleading with sinful man. (G. W. Conder.)

Man’s place is ChristianityI. MAN’S PLACE IN CHRISTIANITY IS RELATED MORE TO THE SPIRITUAL

THAN THE MATERIAL. II. MAN’S PLACE IN CHRISTIANITY IS RELATED TO THE ATTRACTIVE

RATHER THAN THE TERRIBLE. This subject presents a motive for1. Gratitude. 2. Catholicity. Heaven is not a sect. 3. Self-inquiry. “Are we come”to this system? How do we “come” to it? Not by

mere birth, not by profession, but by a new creation in Christ Jesus. (Homilist.)

Ye are come unto mount SionThe privileges and the duties of believers

I. What are the PECULIAR PRIVILEGES of the members of Christ’s Church? 1. The first and greatest, because the foundation of all the rest is, union with

Christ. 2. Association with the whole body of the faithful.

3. The right to the heavenly inheritance. II. If the PRIVILEGES of all who “are come unto Mount Zion” are thus precious

and ennobling, their DUTIES are proportionate. 1. Correspondent to the first-named privilege there is the duty of loyalty to

Christ. 2. Correspondent to the second privilege, there is the duty of love to the

brethren. 3. It is the duty of the members of Christ’s Church, as heirs of the celestial

inheritance, to set their hearts and hopes on heaven. (J. M.McCulloch, D. D.)

The heavenly lifeThe whole chapter shows that this is the nature of a picture motive. It is an

influence rather than a knowledge. And yet how shall one feel influence except through the reason, or through knowledge? But it is the way of the highest instruction to enter through the imagination, and come to the reason in that way. That is the genius, certainly, of the New Testament, in its description of the life above--the life that is to come. It never defines. It seeks not so much to impart knowledge to the reader, as we should call it in this life, as to produce in his mind certain states of feeling. Unskilled men writing, without inspiration, of the new city beyond, of the great afterlife, would have fallen into the mistake of attempting to give in revealed distinctness and accuracy things which by the very terms of our existence we cannot comprehend accurately and distinctly. Not so the inspired teachers. They poetised heaven; they dramatised the future; they gave to man conceptions through his imagination--and not aimlessly, but because through the imagination the sympathies of our nature, hope, joy, trust, aspiration, and the rest, could all be reached. What men need is to be stirred up, and then to be quieted. Intensity and quietude are harmonious in the higher spiritual life. What we want is some motive that will propel us along the sphere of our present life. We do not so much need to know what is to be the daily bread, converse, and activities of the other life; but we do need to know that there is One who has promised us personal sensibility and personal identity there, and that we shall know and be known, love and be loved. We do need to know that heaven is more than a compensation for earth. We do need to know that our being here contributes to immortality, glory, all that belongs to the act of rising into a pure spiritual form and condition where that which is Divine remains and continues in activity. To this Revelation and all the Pauline teachings tend. To this the writings

of the unknown author of the Book of Hebrews tend. They give us an inside revelation which reveals nothing. “Well,” say men, “what kind of a revelation is that?” When the poor wayfarer from old plantation life, hiding himself by day, and then beginning to live at night, pursued his weary way toward the north, he had but one guide and that was the polar star. That star said nothing to him. It shed no warmth on him. He did not know its contents. He knew nothing about it. But it was a star that, when he looked upon it, directed him to where liberty was. From that bright point in the far north he gathered zeal, so that in the darkness, through forest, through fen, across streams, over mountains, pressed by adversaries, with hounds baying on his track, he sped on his way. It was the inspiration of that star that supported him, though it revealed nothing to him but this: “You will be free.” So there is no real description of the future life given to us in the New Testament except this: It is more grand than anything that you can conceive. It hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive it. Nor can man’s capacity compass it and take it all in. Nevertheless, what there is in human notions that inspires us with a sense of grandeur we apply to it. Now, the imagination teaches men in such a way that if you accept the description of heaven simply as a picture or vision, it is full of inspiration and hope. When you say that it shall be glorious, it is a good deal; but the moment you attempt to tell what the glory is, it is nothing at all. To say “we shall reign,” is a good deal; but to undertake to tell what reigning is spoils the whole thing. “I love you” fills the soul and makes it vibrate like a harp, but undertake to explain what the love is, and it is turned to ashes at once. Nevertheless, the emotion is real, and the highest and most potent of our feelings are those which do not suffer themselves to be touched. The most glorious things in us are silent, and will not submit to rude handling, dwelling as they do in the centre of the ineffable. How much greater, better, and more untranslatable by mortal knowledge than physical existence is the realm of love! It is all right if you do not want to know what it is and how it works; but the moment you undertake to philosophise about it, its character is changed. The realm of purity is glorious so long as you do not attempt to analyse it; but you may as well bid it good-bye if you commence to reason about it. There are, then, some lessons to be derived from this. Having thrown off the peril of misinterpretation, there are certain great truths that we may deduce from it without resorting to the curiosity-monger’s process--without attempting to anatomise heaven and deal with it scientifically. There are certain elements that it was meant we should derive from the pictures of it, and that, if we consider them

aright, may be of exceeding great comfort to us in our Christian life. If it be true that we are to live again; if it be true that we are living here that we may go forward and live in a higher state, then the grandeur of the life that now is out of sight. You cannot tell by the earlier condition of things what their later states are to be. You cannot tell by the bud what the inflorescence is to be. You cannot tell by the flower what the fruit is to be. We cannot understand human life by looking at what it has yet come to under the influence of physical economy. In this life many are discouraged; but let a man maintain integrity under all circumstances and in all conditions, let him always and everywhere act with simplicity and fidelity, let him ally himself to those great qualities which God has revealed to be the centre-current of the universe, and all will be well with him. Love works no ill to one’s neighbour; God’s law is love; “Thou shalt love” is the command; and let a man conform himself to that central law of the universe, and then let death plant him, and we will run the risk of his coming up in the other life. And that ought to be a consolation to a man who in this world is poor and inconspicuous, and, as helpless amid the sweep of human affairs as a last year’s leaf on the current of the Amazon. There are multitudes of such men, to whom a view like that which I have been presenting should carry not only comfort, but a great deal of instruction. Consider another fact in this connection--namely, that in this life the things which make the most ado are not the things which are the most important. There is nothing on earth noisier than a storm beating on the shore, and yet what does it do? It is bred in the desert sea. It lashes itself into a useless rage. It thunders in the heavens, and shakes the earth, and comes pouring down, and is broken into a million globules on the immovable rocks. By-and-by its wrath ceases, it smooths its blow, and the sea is tranquil again. What has happened? Nothing. Not a single thing has been done. A man’s life goes thundering on, and the things which are most in the eyes of men are often of the least possible importance. The rage of nations, the march of armies, the rise of inconspicuous tribes to power, and their deliquescence and fading away again--these things seem great to men; but they come and go, and the earth is no whit changed, and men are no whir changed. So the things which are actually worth chronicling, and which are being chronicled, for ever and for ever, are the things which no man hears or sees. This great empty scroll above our heads is God’s workshop, and He is writing there the history of time and the world. The scroll itself shall shrivel and depart; but the things that are written on that scroll shall never change. A man is not what he seems. This life is not what it appears to be. That which men

call nothing--the great invisible realm--is the power which was declared by the apostle to be real. It is the things which are not that bring to naught the things that are. There is dominion in imagination, or in faith, to the man that knows how to avail himself of it. I remark, also, that if these views of the other life,. of the invisible, uninterpreted, and uninterpretable life, of the life of joy and power and grandeur which is to come--but which we cannot define any more closely than this--if these views be true, then how beautiful are the conceptions which are in the nature of comfort to men in the decays that take place in this state of existence! I have always been very much struck by that illustration of Paul’s which is contained in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians. He is speaking about the act of dying. And that which is true of the mere act of death is just as true of every other relation that terminates, or of any other composition which is analysed and goes back to its elements again. He says there are two sides to this matter. You cannot stand in the time-world and see what you will see in the world to come. You only see corruption, you only see dishonour, you only see weakness in the natural body. But then there is another side. There is the way in which God sees things, and there is the way in which the heavenly host see them. But what is to be seen on that side? Why, incorruption, glory, power, a spiritual body. If you look up at the bottom of the coffin from the earth side it is all sad and solemn. If you look down upon the coffin from the Divine side it is all radiant, triumphant, joyful. Those that I have known, whose virtues I have dwelt upon, and whose nature has shed great beauty in life, I love to follow, step by step, as they go down toward death. My faith rejoices in their advance till their voices fail out of my ear, and till their faces are hidden from me, because they have gone to live in Zion and before God: Wherefore comfort one another with words: Strengthen each other by the way. Sing and rejoice, knowing that, bright as is any experience here, it is but a twilight experience till the day shall dawn and the sun shall arise upon your souls. (H. W.Beecher.)The Church likened to a mountain

1. For the height of it. A mountain is higher than the ordinary earth. The Church is high, it is above (Galatians 4:26), and they that be of the Church must carry high and regal minds. We must leave earth, and mount up in our affections into heaven; we must seek the things that be above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

2. The Church is compared to a mountain: for the security of it.

3. For the difficulty of ascending to it. A man may not go up a high hill, but it must cost him pains, sweat and labour; so it is a laborious thing to get to heaven.

4. For the immobility of it. The Church is as Mount Zion that standeth fast for ever, and cannot be removed. Happy are they that be of the Church. (W. Jones, D. D.)

Within sight of it, but cannot see it:Crossing from Belfast to Greenock by the night-boat late one autumn, after

several attempts to sleep, I came upon deck soon after the steamer had entered the Clyde, and stood for a time in conversation with the mate, a true son of Erin. A dense haze prevented us from seeing far beyond the vessel, and I was disappointed in not being able to get a view of the coast. Thinking we were still at sea, I remarked to the man at the helm “I suppose we shall soon be in sight of land?” when, judge of my surprise, the following rejoinder was tendered in reply: “Sure, and we’re within sight of it now, but ye can’t see it I “ More than a little amused with the paradox, I thanked my Hibernian friend, and waited till the hills, purple with heather and crowned with the first signs of winter, rewarded my anxious gaze. I knew that with the firs beams which should penetrate the mist the land would be visible, so I kept looking, and had not long to wait. The landscape, aglow with a thousand blended charms as the sun chased away the gloom of night and the mist of the early dawn, soon stood revealed in all its beauty, and forms a memory to be fondly cherished. (V. J. Charlesworth.)

The heavenly JerusalemThe heavenly Jerusalem

I. THE STATE OF HEAVEN AS A GLORIOUS CITY. “Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” This is that city

1. Where the most glorious display of Divine wisdom appears, everything conducted with exquisite policy.

2. Where omnipotent goodness operates at large, and deals her favours with the richest profusion (Psalms 16:11).

3. Where the King of Glory Himself dwells, and everything declares His more immediate presence (Revelation 7:15).

4. Where the laws, manners, and employments of the inhabitants most resemble and are most worthy of God.

5. In fine, this is that city which is the first production of the grand Architect of nature, and whither we are at last conveyed; but not till duly prepared for it

(Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:14). See a fine description of this Revelation 21:10-22). And of this city, all real Christians are represented as members, even while they are in this world.

II. OUR ACCESSION OR RELATION TO IT. There is a certain figure made use of by our Saviour and His apostles, a figure that makes futurity present and realises the distant glories of immortality (Matthew 5:3; Ephesians 2:6). And the text says, “Ye are come”;--“already come,” etc. The Christian religion suggests particular grounds for this sublime representation, such as no other system can exhibit. For example, we have

1. The express promise of God to put every persevering Christian into the possession of Mount Zion above (Revelation 22:14; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 2:10).

2. It is farther ascertained from the mediation of Christ, the grand end of which see Hebrews 2:10.

3. The supreme power of the Redeemer (Matthew 28:18), which is equal to remove every difficulty, subdue every enemy, supply every necessity, and exalt to the highest dignity.

III. OUR RELATION TO THE HEAD AND TO THE MEMBERS OF THIS CITY. 1. Ye are come to God, the Judge of all, angels and men; the knowledge of

God, His nature, unity, perfections, providence (Ephesians 5:8). The worship and service of God (1   Thessalonians 1:9 ). To His favour Romans 5:1). His family and household (Galatians 4:6-7). His presence; an event so certain that the apostle at once transports the Christian beyond the grave, to that Being who is the soul’s portion, her centre and final happiness.

2. To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant: in and through whom both parts of the covenant are reciprocally conveyed and transmitted. Blessings from God to man, through Christ; and duties from man to God, acceptable through Christ. Come to the Mediator, so as to be united to Him; participate a new nature through Him (2   Corinthians 5:17 ), rely on His sacrifice, obey His commandments, and, according to the aforementioned figure, to be taken by Him at last to the city of God (Revelation 3:21).

3. To an innumerable company of angels. Good men in this world have, indisputably, various connections with those superior beings; they are fellow-subjects and servants (Revelation 22:9). Protected by them Psalms 34:7). Minister to them (Hebrews 1:14). Conduct them to heaven (Luke

16:22). As public heralds, proclaim their Lord’s approach (Matthew 24:31). The apostle here anticipates our incorporation with those happy spirits in glory (Revelation 7:9-12).

4. To the spirits of just men made perfect. We are one community, of the same spirit and disposition, loving the same God, enjoying the same felicity, differing only in degree. They are got home, we are going; they have got the prize, we are wrestling for it.

5. To the general assembly and Church of the firstborn (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15-18). It may respect themselves; they are the chiefs the excellent ones, the firstborn. Written in heaven, alluding to the custom of ancient states, who enrolled their freemen; Christians enrolled in heaven Luke 10:20), to signify that they have a right to all the high privileges of the city of God: and when all collected, compose the general assembly, Matthew 24:31; Revelation 7:9).

Of this amazing corporation every Christian becomes a member at the moment of his conversion to God. Improvement:

1. Hence see the peculiar excellency of that religion which animates her proselytes with so glorious a hope.

2. Let our temper and conduct declare our kindred to those serene and happy intelligences.

3. Let the views of these glorious and animated prospects raise our souls to God in grateful adoration of His goodness and love (Psalms 31:21; Psalms 72:18-19). (J. Hannam.)

I live there:Some one asked a Scotchman if he was on his way to heaven. “Why, man,” he

said, “I live there.” He was only a pilgrim here. Heaven was his home. (D. L. Moody.)Already in heaven:

Are you dreaming, father?” I said one day, when he (Father Taylor) was leaning back in his chair, with closed eyes and a happy smile playing about his mouth. “I am in heaven a little way,” he answered, without moving. “And what is heaven, really?” I asked, climbing upon his knees. “It is loving God,” he replied, still with the same soft dreamy tone. (Mrs. Judge Russell.)Heaven should be much in the thoughts

A lady, unused to the rough travelling of a mountain land, went thither to make her home, and received from one of her new friends this bit of advice. She had

been telling of her faintness when guiding her horse through a deep ford where the waters ran swiftly and the roar was incessant, and said she feared she should never be able to overcome the abject physical terror which dominated her whenever she found herself in the strong current midway between the banks. “Oh, yes, you will,” said her companion. “Just take a leaf in your mouth and chew it, and as you ride across keep your eyes on the other side.” (M. E.Sangster.)Heaven not flit away:

We measure distance by time. We are apt to say that a certain place is so many hours from us. If it is a hundred miles off, and there is no railroad, we think it a long way; if there is a railway, we think we can be there in no time. But how near must we say heaven is?--for it is just one sigh, and we get there. Why, our departed friends are only in the upper room, as it were, of the same house. They have not gone far off; they are upstairs, and we are down below. (C. H. Spurgeon.)The nobility of the Christian life:

How noble the lowest life may become, like some poor, rough sea-shell with a gnarled and dimly-coloured exterior, tossed about in the surge of a stormy sea, or anchored to a rock, but when opened all iridescent with rainbow sheen within, and bearing a pearl of great price! So, to outward seeming, my life may be rough and solitary, and inconspicuous and sad, but, in inner reality, it may have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living. God, and have angels for its guardians, and all the first-born for its brethren and companions. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

An innumerable company of angelsThe office of angels

I. Angels are, as far as we know from revelation, the only beings who take an interest with us in God and the spiritual world. Angels are fellow-citizens with us in the kingdom of Christ. It is certain, moreover, that angels are immortal, but not eternal; that they are very numerous, and have different ranks; that they are used by God as His special ministers, and that they have sympathy with man. But how far this sympathy extends is not so certain. Are they cognisant of human things generally, and of their own accord, or must they in each case be informed by God? In the course of three thousand six hundred years there are, I believe, recorded only twenty instances of angels’ visits, which would allow on the average an interval of one hundred and eighty years between each appearance. Thus their visitations were, in the strict sense of the word, extraordinary, and will be found for the most part to accompany a great national crisis. Next, had angels

in those days power to influence the souls of men? It is very questionable. That they led men by the hand, and spoke God’s messages to them, is certain; but it is not so sure that they instilled into the soul a secret thought, or endued the tempted spirit with heavenly grace. Again, when angels are said to have interfered, were they not visible, no phantom or vivid imagination of the mind, but the impression of a visible substance upon the eye and brain? Thus much of the Old Testament. Let us now proceed to the New. Perhaps the first thing which strikes us here is the frequent mention of angels in contrast with their rare appearance under the old dispensation. It is as if the light of the presence of God on earth brought out more vividly the lesser lights of the spiritual world; just as it has been remarked that the evil spirit also is more apparent in the Gospels, and as the light of God’s glory becomes more intense, so is Satan more evident (as witness the Book of the Revelation). Now some of these references belong to the office which angels hold in heaven, as do all the passages that occur in the Revelation. Of the rest, all but one are concerned with the Divine person of their and our Lord, or with momentous events in immediate connection with Him. The exception is the solitary instance of an angel stirring the waters of Bethesda. Thus there is no more evidence in the Gospels than in the Old Testament to justify us in believing that angels exercise their ministry on earth on ordinary occasions, or that they have any spiritual influence on man at all, or that they act in any way without making themselves visible to those whom they approach. Our next step, then, will be to examine what Holy Scripture says of angels after Pentecost. St. Peter is twice rescued by an angel; Cornelius is advised by an angel to send for Peter; Philip the deacon is sent by another to the eunuch; Herod is smitten by an angel; St. Paul had an angel standing by him in the ship. Thus it is clear that angels are not displaced by the Holy Ghost; and these passages are extremely important, as being those to which we should look, rather than to any which precede them, for an answer to the question, what place do angels hold in the Church of Christ on earth? The answer is very explicit on one point at least. The influence of angels in these instances is not spiritual, but external; their aid is in times of physical danger, not of inward temptation. Again the answer is explicit as to their visible presence--confirming the result to which former records in Scripture had led us, that when they interfere they are not only felt but seen. Finding this to be the case, it is natural to inquire how far this view of angels’ ministries agrees with the whole spirit and character of the Christian dispensation. Let me ask your close attention to this portion of the subject. What

is the great change wrought in our condition by the holy incarnation of the Son and by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost? Words fail me when I try to answer; let me use the language of St. Paul:--“Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one … Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” And rising higher to St. John’s divine words, so wondrously simple and profound, on the truth of the incarnation: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”; and of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the words of Christ Himself: “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” This is the change wrought by Christ in the relation of man to God. I will not say, “what room is there here for spiritual aid from angels?” because we know not the boundaries of God’s scheme of mercy to man; but I will ask, is there not here in God’s own presence all that the spirit of man can desire or imagine? Tell me any sorrow, or doubt, or temptation, or critical emergency of life, in which your heart need look elsewhere for aid but to the Holy Ghost? To look for angel’s help against the enemy of souls, when God Himself has promised to abide in us, is worse than for the traveller to seek at his feet a glowworm’s light to show the path when the moon has risen and called the stars about her overhead. Still, after all, much is doubtful. As with the saints departed, so with angels; it is well to think of them often, but safer to think of them as above, not amongst us, each in his happy sphere midway between ourselves and heaven. (Canon Furse.)The connection between Christian, s and angels

I. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS FRIENDS, from whom we have been separated by the fall. Men and angels, in their original creation, formed but one family; and, though they differed in nature and in residence, they had one Father, and there would have been a free and pleasing intercourse between them. But sin destroyed the harmony of the world. Sin disunited heaven and earth. Sin separated not only between God and men, but between angels and men. When man revolted from his lawful Sovereign, they remained in their allegiance; and as sin rendered God our enemy, so it rendered angels our enemies too. Accordingly we read of their being the executioners of the Divine vengeance. But, in consequence of the mediation of our Lord and Saviour, the breach is healed. We

are reconciled not only to God, but to the angels. Men and angels form again one family; they remained in their original state; we are restored to it; and such is the disposition of those celestial beings, that they do not repine, like the elder brother, at the return of the prodigal, but rejoice to welcome the younger branches of the family home.

III. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS ATTENDANTS, whose care is to follow us through life. God’s noblest creatures are His children’s servants. “Such honour have all the saints.”

III. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS WITNESSES, whose observations we are to reverence. It would be well for us to remember that we are always in sight. The eyes of our fellow-creatures are often upon us; and if they were always upon us, they would restrain us from a thousand sins. But invisible beings always behold us. There are cases in which two guilty individuals are implicated. They accuse each other; and no human being was privy to their wickedness. But angels saw Abel and Cain when they were alone together in the field. They can decide, in an intrigue, who was the seducer, and who the seduced. What a world of private wickedness will they develop!

IV. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS PATTERNS, whose example we are to imitate. To these models our Saviour Himself leads us in the form of devotion He gave to His disciples; in which He teaches us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” And, even now, this prayer is accomplished. Between believers and angels there is a resemblance, though not an equality. Wherein does it appear?

1. It appears in the nature of their obedience. We are told that the angels, however great, find it their privilege to serve. Their obedience is ready, without delay; cheerful, without reluctance; constant, without intermission; and impartial, without choice. The reason is, they love God, and it is His will alone they regard. And whatever low idea you may form of a

Christian, such is, and such must be, His leading desire, and His prevailing endeavour.

2. It appears in their union. These beings have various degrees among them. Yet these produce no contempt, no envy, no eagerness to dictate, no backwardness to co-operate. They perfectly harmonise. They have but one spirit, one wish. Shall I say that Christians do resemble all this? Alas 1 there is too little of it in our churches and assemblies.

3. It appears in the subject of their study. The angels are proverbial for knowledge; we read of being “ wise as an angel of God.” Had we heard only of such exalted beings, we should be anxious to know what things they deemed most worthy of their attention. But we are informed. They are “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow--which things the angels desire to look into.” Are you like-minded? Is this the most welcome subject to your hearts? The most important to your minds?

4. It appears in their worship. They adore the incarnate Redeemer. And is there a Christian upon earth that does not delight in the same praise?

V. WE ARE COME TO THEM AS ASSOCIATES, with whom we are to blend our future being, and from whom we shall derive no inconsiderable part of our happiness. It is not good for man to be alone. He is formed for social enjoyment; and it is a great source of his present pleasure. The representation of heaven meets this propensity. And there are two classes of beings that will contribute much to our satisfaction and improvement. The one is endearing. It takes in those you loved in life, with whom you took sweet counsel together, and went to the house of God in company, your pious friends and relations, who now sleep in Jesus. The other is dignifying. It comprehends patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs--angels. You shall be introduced to company of the very first sort. Angels are the flower of the creation; and the poorest, meanest believer shall enjoy it; and be prepared for it. Let us conclude with two questions.

1. How can it be said that “we are come to” this blessed assembly? By the certainty of the event. By promise--and “ he Scripture cannot be broken.” By hope-and “hope maketh not ashamed.” By anticipation, by earnests, by foretastes of this exalted felicity.

2. To whom are you come? (W. Jay.)The nature of angels:

I. THEY ARE THE HIGHEST OF ALL CREATED BEINGS, WHOSE HOME IS THE IMMEDIATE PRESENCE OF GOD. They were heaven’s earliest inmates, when “ the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” They see God face to face continually; they worship Him, and rest not day and night from praising Him; their obedience is perfect and secure; where laws end, love begins. To borrow the image of South, like a cup of crystal thrown into a brim-ruing river, which first is filled, then lost in the stream, so sinks their overflowing love in the love of God. Nor is their vision limited to heaven. Once they saw the eternal Son descend from thence to earth, and marked His life and

death, and ministered to Him in His abasement and His glory. With sympathetic insight into the mystery of redemption, yet there remained things into which they “desired to look.” And now that the Son has returned in glory to His eternal home, they look for the fulfilment of His joy; watching for the coming in of souls for whom He died; rejoicing when one by one are drawn into the circle those for whom He prayed, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me, where I am.” And when through the contentions of a doubtful life grace has at last prevailed, who can tell the joy with which through the yielding air they spread their level wings, and bear in their hands the sour of the contrite, secure from sin, far off into Abraham’s bosom?

II. Lastly, as to THEIR ADORATION OF GOD IN HEAVEN. Worship is angels’ work; and in the contemplation of their office here no room is left for difference or doubt. The Old Testament and the New conspire in holy emulation to reveal the heavenly vision in the noblest terms. Worship is the sum of the life in heaven; and what is the noblest work of our life on earth? The same. As among our natural passions and affections towards our fellows love is the highest, and has mightiest influence, so towards God is worship. Worship is love sublimated by the majesty of God. Think what the example of angels teaches us in this great portion of the Christian life.

1. First, that worship is only possible in the presence of God. Their worship in the Church above is only more perfect than that of saints in the Church below, because they are more near to God. The sight of Him is their joy; and such will be yours, if yours be the promise, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Meanwhile what sight is now to angels, and will hereafter be to you, is at the present time your faith.

2. Next this apprehension of the Divine Presence fills them with awe and reverence. The cherubim with his wings covers his face and his feet; the angels before the throne fall on their faces. Such a thought may give us a rule of conduct in our acts of worship. In all our public devotions, above all at Holy Communion, let our commonest actions be ruled by a tender spirit of reverence.

3. Again their worship exercises not only their affections, but their intelligence. They understand what they worship. The principle of all true worship is this--“I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”

4. Above all with their praises and their prayers goes on the sweet accompaniment of an obedient will, a heart attuned to the love of God,

sympathy with all His doings in judgment and in mercy, sympathy with His holiness and His vengeance against sin.

5. Again we little know how much we are affected by the example of numbers. The numbers on one side or the other decide the choice of waverers. We cast our lot into the heaviest scale. The broad way, though it lead to death, has its contented wayfarers, chiefly because it is so broad; the narrow way discourages so many, because there are so few that walk in it. Then, like Elisha’s servant, open your eyes and see the hosts of angels serving God, exceeding in number the generation of men, whom you see afraid to confess Him here.

6. Lastly to think of their happiness! happiness, so rare a gift, that among friends it is but seldom named, and then under their breath, and in a tone almost of despair of finding it; each heart knowing its own bitterness; the stranger not intermeddling with it, the friend unable to hear it, so he must let that alone for ever! And then to read of angels’ happiness, so perfect, so secure! (Canon Furse.)

General assembly and Church of the firstbornThe Church of the firstborn

I. THE SPIRIT OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.It is pre-eminently mild and gracious. This being so, it becomes those who are

under it, and who have been made partakers of its blessings, to cultivate a spirit in accordance therewith. A spirit of slavish terror, however befitting the law, is altogether unsuitable to the gospel. It is related of Titus, the Roman emperor, when a certain petitioner presented his address to him with a trembling hand, that he was much displeased; and addressing the affrighted suppliant, he asked, “Dost thou present thy petition to thy prince as if thou wert giving meat to a lion?” While a spirit of reverence might have been proper on such an occasion, he regarded the extreme fear which this person displayed as altogether unbecoming. A spirit of trembling fear should be avoided by the Christian, being forbidden by the many gracious assurances which God has given to encourage us in our approaches to His throne; and also as being opposed to the distinctive features of the dispensation under which we dwell,

II. THE NATURE AND PRIVILEGES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 1. Its unity. 2. Its glory. Judging by outward appearance, the Church of Christ may appear

despicable; much that is ignoble and mean may be seen in its members.

But is it so in reality? What I ignoble, when the city they belong to is the city of the great King; a city whose streets are of gold, whose gates are of pearls, and into which the glory and honour of the nations shall be brought! And then there is, not merely the city of the believer’s habitation, but his associates and his friends. Talk of meanness, when myriads of angels, and the great multitude of the redeemed, are his companions [

3. Its spirituality. “But ye are come”--come to what? To things pre-eminently glorious; but they are at present invisible, being spiritual realities, objects of faith, and not of bodily vision.

The firstbornSweeter to our ear than the full chorus of bright skies and greenwood, are the

first notes of the warbler that pipes away the winter, and breaks in on its long, drear silence! And more welcome to our eye than the flush of summer’s gayest flowers, is the simple snow-drop that hangs its pure white bell above the dead bare ground. And why? These are the firstborn of the year, the forerunners of a crowd to follow. In that group of silver bells that ring in the spring with its joys, and loves, and singing birds, my fancy’s eye sees the naked earth clothed in beauty, the streams, like children let loose, dancing and laughing, and rejoicing in their freedom, bleak winter gone, and Nature’s annual resurrection. And in that solitary simple note, my fancy hears the carol of larks, wild moor, hillside, and woodlands full of song, and ringing all with music. And in Christ, the Firstborn, I see the grave giving up its dead; from the depths of the sea, from lonely wilderness and crowded churchyard they come, like the dews of the grass, an innumerable multitude. Risen Lord! we rejoice in Thy resurrection. We hail it as the harbinger and blessed pledge of our own. The first to come forth, Theft art the Elder Brother of a family, whose countless numbers the patriarch saw in the dust of the desert, whose holy beauty he saw shining in the bright stars of heaven. The firstborn! This spoils the grave of its horrors, changing the tomb into a capacious womb that death is daily filling with the germs of life. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)The general convocation around Mount Zion

I. First, I want to set out, A CONTRAST PRESENTED IN THE ENTIRE PASSAGE--a contrast between the economy of law and the economy of grace.Every good thing is enhanced in value by its opposite. The contrast between free grace and law makes grace appear the more precious to minds that have known the rigour of the commandment. The contrast presented here is

sevenfold. First, as to place, “Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched” (Hebrews 12:18); “But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem “(Hebrews 12:22). Behold Sinai with its rugged crags: scarce had a human foot ever trodden it: perhaps until that hour in which Jehovah descended upon it in splendour it had remained a virgin peak, which the foot of man had never polluted. It was sublime, but stern and tempest-beaten. God came upon Sinai with His law, and the dread mount became a type of what the law would be to us. It has given us a grand idea of holiness, but it has not offered us a pathway thereto, nor furnished a weary heart with a resting-place. The Jews under the law had that stern hill for their centre, and they compassed it about with pale countenances and trembling knees. We gather to quite another centre, even unto the palace-crowned steep of Zion. There David dwelt of old, and there David’s Lord revealed Himself, This mount which might be touched, we are told, in the next place, “burned with fire.” God’s presence made the mountain melt and flow down. Jehovah revealed Himself in flaming fire. What, then, have believers come to instead of fire? Why, to another form of fire: to “ an innumerable company of angels”--“He maketh His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire.” God comes to us by them: “He rode upon a cherub, and did fly.” Pursue the contrast, and you find on Mount Sinai that there was blackness, doubtless made the more intensely black as the vivid lightnings flashed out from it. “Ye are not come unto blackness,” says Paul, What is the contrast to this? “But ye are come to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” Blackness is the symbol of sorrow, it is the garb of mourning. Everywhere we associate blackness with grief; but now Paul sets before us the grandest embodiment of joy. The word for general assembly in the original suggests a far-reaching festivity. “Ye are come to the paneguris: to a solemn festive assembly, comparable to the National Convocation of the Greeks, which was held around the foot of Mount Olympus, every four or five years, when all the Greeks of different states came together to keep up the national feeling by festivities and friendly competitions. Follow the next point of contrast, and you have darkness mentioned. “Nor unto blackness, and darkness.” The cloud on Sinai was so dark as to obscure the day, except that every now and then the lightning-flash lit up the scene. What are we come to in contrast to that darkness? “To God the Judge of all.” “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” What a contrast to the darkness of the law is a reconciled God! And what follows next? Why, tempest. It is said, “Ye are not come unto the mount that

might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest.” All over the top of Sinai there swept fierce winds and terrible tornadoes, for the Lord was there. All heaven seemed convulsed when God did rend it, and descended in majesty upon the sacred mount. But what do you and I see? The very reverse of tempest--“The spirits of just men made perfect,” serenely resting. They are perfect, they have fought the fight, they are full of ecstatic bliss, the glory of God is reflected from their faces; they have reached the fair haven, and are tossed with tempest no more. Follow the contrast further, and you coma to the sound of a trumpet. This resounded from the top of Sinai. Clarion notes most clear and shrill rang out again and again the high commands of the thrice-holy God. You are not come to that. Instead of a trumpet, which signifies war and the stern summons of a king, ye are come unto “Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant,” and the silver tones of “Come unto Me, all ye,” &c. The seventh contrast lies in this--together with the trumpet there sounded out a voice, a voice that was so terrible that they asked that they might not hear it again. We have coma to another voice, the voice of “the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” There is a voice from Zion, there is a voice that rolls over the heads of the innumerable company of angels, a voice of the Lord that is full of majesty, and exceedingly comfortable to the “ general assembly and Church of the firstborn,” who know the joyful sound.

II. There is A COMPARISON in our more central text. “We are come to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” It is a comparison, not with anything Jewish, for that would not have been suitable, but with a Gentile festival, which more readily lent;itself to the apostle’s great thought. In Greece, in her happier times, in order to preserve a national unity, the various states, kingdoms, or republics, which constituted Greece proper, held at the foot of Olympus a great gathering, to which none came as participators except citizens of the various Greek nationalities. The object of the gathering was that every part of the Greek nature might be educated and displayed, and the unity of the Greek race be remembered. How much I wish that we could look upon all the conflicts, sufferings, and troubles of this mortal life as occupations of the great festive gathering which is now being held in heaven and in earth around the city of our God. If we all understand that this period is not comparable to a battle, whereof the result hangs in the balance, but comparable to those deeds of prowess wherewith of old men celebrated a victory, then the face of things is altered, and our toils are transfigured. Angels come down, and poor men and

women are lifted up, in patience triumphing, and giving pleasure to their Lord, and bringing honour to that favoured city which God has prepared for them. Oh, the bliss of feeling that even nosy heaven is begun below, and the sufferings of this present life are but a part of the glory of the Lord manifested in His people!

III. The third point is--A COMING TO BE ENJOYED. This is the essence of it all We are come unto this general assembly and Church of the firstborn. How then do we come? This festival is only for the firstborn, and you are not that by nature. You must first be born again, and become one of the firstborn. The Spirit of God must make you a new creature in Christ Jesus, and then the porter will open the wicket, and say, “Come in, and welcome.” Which part are you going to take in this great gathering? Will you fight against sin? Will you wrestle against error? Will you run for the crown? Will you sing or speak? What will you do in this great congress of all the saints? (C. H. Spurgeon.)Anticipating holy society

Socrates was glad when his death approached, because he thought he should go to Hesoid, Homer, and other learned men deceased, whom he expected to meet in the other world. How much more do I rejoice, who am sure that I shall see my Saviour Christ, the saints, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and all holy men who have lived from the beginning of the world! Since I am sure to partake of their felicity, why should not I be willing to die, to enjoy their perpetual society in glory? (Henry Bullinger.)Intercourse between heaven and earth

I was reading the other day that, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, the wives of fishermen whose husbands have gone far out upon the deep are in the habit, at eventide, of going down to the seashore, and singing, as female voices only can, the first stanza of a beautiful hymn. After they have sung it, they listen till they hear, borne by the wind across the desert-sea, the second stanza, sung by their gallant husbands as they are tossed by the gale upon the waves; and both are happy. Perhaps, if we could listen, we, too, might hear on this desert-world of ours some sound, some whisper, borne from afar, to remind us that there is a heaven and a home; and, when we sing the hymn upon the shores of earth, perhaps we shall hear its sweet echo breaking in music upon the sands of time, and cheering the hearts of them that are pilgrims and strangers and look for a city that hath foundations. (J. Cumming, D. D.)The general assembly written in heaven:

We have in this whole passage a description of the Catholic Church as it is now revealed to us under the gospel. And this is put in contrast with the state of the Church under the law. The kingdom is now united, and the Church is catholic; and those who come into it are not only joined in mutual earthly fellowship, but they come into union, as real, although not so conscious and apparent, with the Church invisible and glorified. As we consider some aspects of this subject, let us try to think and feel ourselves into that higher fellowship.

I. We come to that unseen and glorious company BY OUR KNOWLEDGE. We have far more actual knowledge of the invisible world than we vivify and use. We know, that when flitting like shadows here, from place to place, and ever nearer to the grave, there is a city which hath foundations, in the records of which our names may be enrolled. We know that when struggling and crowding here--striving for space and room, and particular standing--there is a house of many mansions, and a place prepared for each, large enough for the developments of the immortal life. Our knowledge is in some respects limited enough. We cannot see it; we cannot come to it in the flesh; flesh and blood shall not inherit it; no mortal hand can draw aside the veil, nor pierce it, although it sometimes seems so thin. Perhaps if we were better, purer, more saintly, we could safely be trusted with more light on the future, and it is certain that if we ask and look and wait we shall attain to more. We are like men gazing towards the land from the deck of a ship. A dim outline appears, like a cloud, at which they strain their sight; until by the movement of the vessel and the custom of the eye it becomes clearer and clearer still. The mountains gradually reveal their peaks; then the valleys show; then the corn; then the smoke of the cottage; the group by the cottage door; the apples on the tree; and then--the vessel is in port. So, by looking, heaven becomes clearer; as welook, it comes more near. To us as individuals, this revelation will be much or little, according to our personal realisation of it. Our knowledge may be a lamp unlighted as well as burning. It may be a map of a country on which we seldom look, or on which we trace with careful finger every mountain ridge, every river and plain. Central Africa is now opened, and to the world it can never be a blank any more. Some individuals may know very little of it, yet that knowledge is a possession to the race for ever. And so, to the world has been given the unalienable possession of the knowledge of the “better country, the heavenly,” which is on the other side of death, in which the Saviour is, into which He has already gathered myriads of His friends, to which so many of our own friends have gone, and to which we ourselves are travelling.

II. We come to the invisible Church BY OUR FAITH. We come to it more by our faith than by our knowledge. Faith is knowledge glorified, and vitalised; it is, as the former chapter tells us, the “ substance of things hoped for.” It makes the objects of our cognition so real and vivid that we possess in our thought the very substance of them. We have such assured confidence in their existence that the removal of them from the realm of faith would be like taking away the solid world from our senses. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” It proves them, and presents them so that the mind feels their presence; sees them; is solemnised by them; holds them fast! It redeems our humanity from its degradation to know that there are men, who, while living here, are also living yonder--who have a life hidden as well as visible “ with Christ in God.” We believe that He is. We believe that our friends are with Him; and if we can come to Him, and to them, in our daily faith--in the seekings, strivings, and settlings of our souls, then we are believers indeed. We may form what views we will on the time and nature of the resurrection--on the intermediate state, or on the physical characteristics of the life to come. If only we come to Him--our High Priest within the veil, and our forerunner there--we shall in due time stand rejoicing in His presence.

III. “We are come” to that invisible triumphant Church, IN OUR LOVE, as truly as in our knowledge and our faith. All heaven-born souls love the place of their birth. Born again, or born from above, is to have enrolment and citizenship there--it is to have our treasure there and our heart also.

IV. And all these comings, need we say? are presages of THE FINAL PERSONAL COMING BY DEATH into the “general assembly and Church of the firstborn in heaven.” We speak often of death as a going away, and picture to ourselves the spirit passing into vast solitudes, friends and dear familiar scenes all left behind, as it looks out upon the first reaches and roundings of the everlasting journey. Some thoughtful writers have dwelt much on the loneliness of death, until one has felt intensely solitary in the prospect. They have fixed upon the fact that each of us must meet death alone, and, of course, that is true, at least as regards earthly companionships. But that even then we shall be absolutely alone is only conjecture; and if we must conjecture, I for one would rather take the other side, and believe that since God gives us company here from the moment of birth to the moment of death, He will have other company awaiting us there, so that we shall take no step in loneliness or dread, but enter at once and easily into the higher fellowships, and go forward with a cheerful confidence through the valley of transition. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

God the Judge of allFaith’s access to the Judge and His attendants

I. FAITH PLANTS US AT THE VERY BAR OF GOD. Here is a truth which it is the office of faith to realise continually in our daily lives. Your loving access to God, Christian men and women, has brought you right under the eye of the Judge, and, though there be no terror in our approach to that tribunal, there ought to be a wholesome awe as to the permanent attitude of our spirits, the awe which is the very opposite of the cowering dread which hath torment. Then, again, notice that this judgment of God is on e which a Christian man should joyfully accept. “The Lord will judge His people,” says one of the Psalms. “You only have I known of all the inhabitants of the earth; therefore will I punish you for your iniquities,” says one of the prophets. Such sayings represent this present judgment as inevitable, just because of the close connection into which true faith brings a man with his Father in heaven. Inevitable, and likewise most blessed and desirable, for in the thought are included all the methods by which, in providence, and by ministration of His truth and of His Spirit, God reveals to us our meannesses; and delivers us sometimes, even by the consequences which accrue from them, from the burden and power of our sin. So, then, the office of faith in regard of this continuous judgment which God is exercising upon us because He loves us is, first of all, to open our hearts to it by confession, by frank communion, by referring all our actions to Him to court that investigation. And then, further, remember that this judgment is one that demands our thankful acceptance of the discipline which it puts in force. If we knew ourselves we should bless God for our sorrows. These are His special means of drawing His children away from their evil.

II. FAITH CARRIES US WHILE LIVING TO THE SOCIETY OF THE LIVING DEAD. “The Judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect.” Immediately on the thought of God rising in the writer’s mind there rises also the thought of the blessed company in the centre of whom He lives and reigns. “The spirits of … men made perfect.” That is to say, they dwell freed from the incubus and limitations, and absolved from the activities, of a bodily organisation. Then, further, these spirits are “perfect.” The writer has said, at the close of the preceding chapter, that the ancient saints “without us should not be made perfect.” And here he employs the same word with distinct reference, as I suppose, to his previous declaration. From which I infer that Jesus Christ shot some rays of His victorious and all-reconciling power from His Cross into the

regions of darkness, and brought thence those who were waiting for His coming through many a long age. A great painter has left on the walls of a little cell in his Florentine convent a picture of the victorious Christ, white-robed and banner-bearing, breaking down the iron gates that shut in the dark rocky cave; and flocking to Him, with outstretched hands of eager welcome, the whole long series from the first man downwards, hastening to rejoice in His light, and to participate in His redemption. So the ancient Church was “perfected” in Christ; but the words refer, not only to those Old Testament patriarchs and saints, but to all who, up to the time of the writer’s composition of his letter, had “ slept in Jesus.” They have reached their goal in Him. But yet that “ perfecting “does not exclude progress, continuous through all the ages; and especially it does not exclude one great step in advance which, as Scripture teaches us, will be taken when the resurrection of the body is granted. Corporeity is the perfecting of humanity. Body, soul, and spirit, these make the full-summed man in all his powers. And so the souls beneath the altar, clothed in white, and lapt in felicity, do yet wait for the adoption, even the redemption of the body. Mark, further, that these spirits perfected would not have been perfected there unless they had been made just here. That is the first step, without which nothing in death has any tendency to ennoble or exalt men. If we are ever to come to the perfecting of the heavens, we must begin with the justifying that takes place on earth. Let me point you to one other consideration bearing not so much on the condition as on the place of these perfected spirits. It is very significant that they should be closely associated in our text with “ God the Judge of all.” Is there any hint that men who have been redeemed, who, being unjust, have been made just, and have had experience of restoration and of the misery of departure, shall, in the ultimate order of things, stand nearer the throne than unfallen spirits, and teach angels? (A. Maclaren, D. D.)God the Judge of all

I. I am to show THAT IT IS A VERY AWFUL, THOUGH A COMFORTABLE, THING TO CONVERSE WITH GOD THE JUDGE OF ALL.

1. The majesty and glory of the great God makes it awful conversing with Him.

2. God’s omniscience is another thing which makes it solemn conversing with God as Judge of all (Hebrews 4:13).

3. The purity and holiness of God make it a solemn thing for polluted sinners to have any converse with Him.

4. The strictness of God’s law, which is the rule of judgment, makes it a solemn thing to converse with this great and glorious Judge. God judges of all my thoughts and actions by the same law now that sentence is to be passed by in the great day of accounts.

Use 1. Is it so solemn a thing for believers in Christ to come to God the Judge of all; how or “where then must the sinner and the ungodly appear”?

2. Is it so solemn a thing to converse with God the Judge of all? Then, believer, how seldom art thou in a right frame for duty. You know with what solemnity and preparation they of old attended on God when giving the law. The people were sanctified to-day and to-morrow, and washed their clothes to be in readiness against the third day (Exodus 19:10). Is there less call for preparation and solemnity under the gospel? are trifling frames and a worldly spirit any part of that liberty we have in Christ? Dare we go to holy ordinances drowned in the cares of this life, reeking in the filth of some unsubdued lust?

3. Learn from what has been said, the only way to think of future judgment with pleasure and comfort. It is by coming to God the Judge of all, now.

4. What a blessed gospel is that which reveals the only righteousness wherein a poor guilty sinner may appear before God with comfort!

II. How Is IT THAT SUCH A CONVERSE IS BEGUN BETWEEN A HOLY GOD AND POOR SINNERS?

1. It is begun in the conviction or sensibleness a soul has that he is a guilty lost sinner.

2. In order to a poor sinner’s comfortably conversing with God the Judge of all, there must be a free confession of all sin and a subscribing to the rights of His justice. This is called an accepting of the punishment of one’s iniquity (Leviticus 26:41) and a clearing and justifying God when we are judged (Psalms 51:4).

3. In order to a poor sinner’s comfortable converse with God the Judge of all, there must be an absolute renouncing all righteousness of his own.

4. The way to have comfortable converse with God the Judge of all is to come before Him in the Mediator’s righteousness and to plead it with Him as thy justifying righteousness.

Use: 1. If there be no coming to God as Judge of all with comfort but by confessing sin, their state must be sad who seek comfort by hiding or lessening sin.

2. Must a soul be brought to submit to the rights of God’s justice in order to a comfortable converse with Him as Judge of all? then woe to all such as quarrel with God’s judgment.

3. Must all self-righteousness be renounced in order to a comfortable converse with God the Judge of all? How contrary is that doctrine which sets up the creature’s sincere obedience as a part of our gospel-righteousness!

III. IN WHAT INSTANCES AND BY WHAT METHODS THIS CONVERSE WHICH BELIEVERS HAVE WITH GOD THE JUDGE OF ALL IS MAINTAINED AND CARRIED ON.

1. I am to give some instances wherein believers have comfortable converse with God the Judge of all, through the whole of their gospel profession and walk. The apostle speaks of it as a privilege attending their state, not a blessing peculiar to some extraordinary frames. It is a believer’s settled mercy and daily duty to converse with God the Judge of all.

2. How or by what special methods this comfortable converse with God is promoted and maintained.

3. By what means this comfortable converse with God as Judge of all is prevented and interrupted?

Use: 1. Surely a believer’s converse with God must be very precious when Satan finds out so many ways to prevent and interrupt it. Were it then, the office of faith in regard of this continuous judgment which God is exercising upon us because He loves us is, first of all, to open our hearts to it by confession, by frank communion, by referring all our actions to Him to court that investigation. And then, further, remember that this judgment is one that demands our thankful acceptance of the discipline which it puts in force. If we knew ourselves we should bless God for our sorrows. These are His special means of drawing His children away from their evil.

II. FAITH CARRIES US WHILE LIVING TO THE SOCIETY OF THE LIVING DEAD. “The Judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect.” Immediately on the thought of God rising in the writer’s mind there rises also the thought of the blessed company in the centre of whom He lives and reigns. “The spirits of … men made perfect.” That is to say, they dwell freed from the incubus and limitations, and absolved from the activities, of a bodily organisation. Then, further, these spirits are “ perfect.” The writer has said, at the close of the preceding chapter, that the ancient saints “ without us should not be made

perfect.” And here he employs the same word with distinct reference, as I suppose, to his previous declaration. From which I infer that Jesus Christ shot some rays of His victorious and all-reconciling power from His Cross into the regions of darkness, and brought thence those who were waiting for His coming through many a long age. A great painter has left on the walls of a little cell in his Florentine convent a picture of the victorious Christ, white-robed and banner-bearing, breaking down the iron gates that shut in the dark rocky cave; and flocking to Him, with outstretched hands of eager welcome, the whole long series from the first man downwards, hastening to rejoice in His light, and to participate in His redemption. So the ancient Church was “perfected” in Christ; but the words refer, not only to those Old Testament patriarchs and saints, but to all who, up to the time of the writer’s composition of his letter, had “slept in Jesus.” They have reached their goal in Him. But yet that “perfecting” does not exclude progress, continuous through all the ages; and especially it does not exclude one great step in advance which, as Scripture teaches us, will be taken when the resurrection of the body is granted. Corporeity is the perfecting of humanity. Body, soul, and spirit, these make the full-summed man in all his powers. And so the souls beneath the altar, clothed in white, and lapt in felicity, do yet wait for the adoption, even the redemption of the body. Mark, further, that these spirits perfected would not have been perfected there unless they had been made just here. That is the first step, without which nothing in death has any tendency to ennoble or exalt men. If we are ever to come to the perfecting of the heavens, we must begin with the justifying that takes place on earth. Let me point you to one other consideration bearing not so much on the condition as on the place of these perfected spirits. It is very significant that they should be closely associated in our text with “ God the Judge of all.” Is there any hint that men who have been redeemed, who, being unjust, have been made just, and have had experience of restoration and of the misery of departure, shall, in the ultimate order of things, stand nearer the throne than unfallen spirits, and teach angels? (A. Maclaren, D. D.)God the Judge of all

I. I am to show THAT IT IS A VERY AWFUL, THOUGH A COMFORTABLE, THING TO CONVERSE WITH GOD THE JUDGE OF ALL.

1. The majesty and glory of the great God makes it awful conversing with Him.

2. God’s omniscience is another thing which makes it solemn conversing with God as Judge of all (Hebrews 4:13).

3. The purity and holiness of God make it a solemn thing for polluted sinners to have any converse with Him.

4. The strictness of God’s law, which is the rule of judgment, makes it a solemn thing to converse with this great and glorious Judge. God judges of all my thoughts and actions by the same law now that sentence is to be passed by in the great day of accounts.

Use: 1. Is it so solemn a thing for believers in Christ to come to God the Judge of all; how or “where then must the sinner and the ungodly appear”?

2. Is it so solemn a thing to converse with God the Judge of all? Then, believer, how seldom art thou in a right frame for duty. You know with what solemnity and preparation they of old attended on God when giving the law. The people were sanctified to-day and to-morrow, and washed their clothes to be in readiness against the third day (Exodus 19:10). Is there less call for preparation and solemnity under the gospel? are trifling frames and a worldly spirit any part of that liberty we have in Christ? Dare we go to holy ordinances drowned in the cares of this life, reeking in the filth of some unsubdued lust?

3. Learn from what has been said, the only way to think of future judgment with pleasure and comfort. It is by coming to God the Judge of all, now.

4. What a blessed gospel is that which reveals the only righteousness wherein a poor guilty sinner may appear before God with comfort!

II. How Is IT THAT SUCH A CONVERSE IS BEGUN BETWEEN A HOLY GOD AND POOR SINNERS?

1. It is begun in the conviction or sensibleness a soul has that he is a guilty lost sinner.

2. In order to a poor sinner’s comfortably conversing with God the Judge of all, there must be a free confession of all sin and a subscribing to the rights of His justice. This is called an accepting of the punishment of one’s iniquity (Leviticus 26:41) and a clearing and justifying God when we are judged (Psalms 51:4).

3. In order to a poor sinner’s comfortable converse with God the Judge of all, there must be an absolute renouncing all righteousness of his own.

4. The way to have comfortable converse with God the Judge of all is to come before Him in the Mediator’s righteousness and to plead it with Him as thy justifying righteousness.

Use: 1. If there be no coming to God as Judge of all with comfort but by confessing sin, their state must be sad who seek comfort by hiding or lessening sin.

2. Must a soul be brought to submit to the rights of God’s justice in order to a comfortable converse with Him as Judge of all? then woe to all such as quarrel with God’s judgment.

3. Must all self-righteousness be renounced in order to a comfortable converse with God the Judge of all? How contrary is that doctrine which sets up the creature’s sincere obedience as a part of our gospel-righteousness!

III. IN WHAT INSTANCES AND BY WHAT METHODS THIS CONVERSE WHICH BELIEVERS HAVE WITH GOD THE JUDGE OF ALL IS MAINTAINED AND CARRIED ON.

1. I am to give some instances wherein believers have comfortable converse with God the Judge of all, through the whole of their gospel profession and walk. The apostle speaks of it as a privilege attending their state, not a blessing peculiar to some extraordinary frames. It is a believer’s settled mercy and daily duty to converse with God the Judge of all.

2. How or by what special methods this comfortable converse with God is promoted and maintained.

3. By what means this comfortable converse with God as Judge of all is prevented and interrupted?

Use: 1. Surely a believer’s converse with God must be very precious when Satan finds out so many ways to prevent and interrupt it. Were it not a great privilege, it would be less envied, less obstructed.

2. How needful is a doctrinal clearness in the business of a sinner’s justification in the sight of God! Confusion in the mind and judgment makes confusion in the soul’s comfort.

3. To show what a blessed privilege such a comfortable converse is in the whole of believers’ course heavenwards. Wherein the privilege of such a converse does consist.

Christians have to do with God as Judge:

When, a few years since, a Mahometan convert at Calcutta came to Lal Behouri Sing for baptism, the missionary asked him, “What was the vital point in which he found Mohammedanism most defective, and which he found that Christianity satisfactorily supplied?” His prompt reply was--“Mohammedanism is full of the mercy of God; and while I felt no real consciousness of guilt as the breaker of God’s law, this satisfied me; but when I felt my guilt, I felt that it was not with God’s mercy, but with His justice that I had first to do. Now to meet the claims of God’s justice Mohammedanism had made no provision; but this is the very thing that I have found fully accomplished by the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, and therefore Christianity is now the only adequate religion for me, a guilty sinner.” (C. Stanford, D. D.)

The spirits of just men made perfectThe contemplation of departed saints

1. The contemplation of departed saints is calculated to reconcile us to our lot upon earth, however adverse and afflictive in its nature. What was the condition of these exalted and glorified spirits while they tabernacled upon earth? Did their station here in any way resemble the state in which they are now placed? Or, did their worldly circumstances foreshow what they have come to enjoy? No doubt some of them were men of rank and affluence; but still, it is well known that many of them were persons of low degree, who were subjected to want, who were pinched with poverty, and oppressed with both personal and relative affliction during the period of their mortal life. Amongst these there is a Job, there is a Lazarus, who was under the disagreeable necessity of begging his bread. We here learn that neither poverty nor affliction is any mark of the Divine displeasure; but that the troubles which afflict the just, on the contrary, may be great and many in number. Besides, we have here the most convincing evidence that God will reject none on account of his indigent circumstances or diseased body; but that the poor and afflicted may nevertheless be amongst the friends of heaven.

2. The contemplation of departed saints is calculated to preserve us from despondency under a consciousness of guilt and imperfection. As this may be occasioned by a deep sense of guilt and depravity, so a means of preventing it may be found in contemplating the spirits of just men made perfect. Though they were created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, and were studying to die unto sin and live unto righteousness; yet they

had reason to complain of the little progress which they made in the way of holiness. Though they all delighted in the law of the Lord after the inward man, and in some measure accounted it as their meat and drink to do the will of God; yet they were at times neglectful of their duty, and, through inadvertence or the strength of temptation, were stepping aside from the path of rectitude. There was not one of them that always did good and never sinned. Why, then, should Christians despond while they recollect what these objects of their contemplation once were, and attend to what they now are. These once struggled against the corruption of nature, but they have obtained the victory. Instead of being excluded from the beatific presence of Jehovah, and falling under the condemnation of the Almighty, they are now reaping the honours and the felicity of the righteous. Yes, they are “the spirits of just men made perfect”: their guilt is wholly cancelled, and their depravity is completely done away.

3. The contemplation of departed saints is calculated to support and comfort us under all our trials and afflictions. The saints in heaven have been made perfect as in holiness, so also in blessedness: they have entered into glory; they have removed from a world of trial and suffering to the land of eternal rest, where there is no more sorrow nor sighing, no more sickness nor death.

4. The contemplation of departed saints is calculated to animate us in the discharge of duty, and to make us persevere in the practice of holiness. Methinks I now see them holding forth the ensigns of royalty, and hear them saying to us who profess to be the disciples of Jesus: “These are the rewards which God hath given, Be not weary, then, in well-doing, for you will at length reap if you faint not.”

5. The contemplation of departed saints is calculated to console our minds while mourning on account of the death of our Christian friends. Though they are absent from the body, yet they are present with the Lord. Though the frail house of their earthly tabernacle is dissolved, yet they have obtained the building of God, “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (John Ralston, M. A.)

Benefits of meditation on God’s saints1. First, let us think what an encouragement it is to us to go forward on our

Christian course with zeal, perseverance, and steadiness, when we reflect

on that perfect state of peace and holiness to which “ the spirits of the just “ shall be admitted in the eternal world.

2. Again, let us consider, that if we are indeed faithful servants of Christ Jesus, then we are members of that Comumnion of Saints, that mystical body, whereof He is the Head. Then we are entitled to a place among patriarchs, prophets, saints, and martyrs. Then the glory to which we shall be admitted at last is as much above the glory of the greatest prince or potentate on earth, as heaven itself is above this world. Such, and so great, is the dignity of the true Christian.

3. Another thing to be considered is, of the deep, sincere, and thorough humility which must be expected of those who think to be admitted into the blessed society of “ the spirits of just men made perfect.” Indeed, the true dignity of the Christian consists in his humility:--“He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” How can we in reason expect to be “ numbered with God’s saints in glory everlasting,” if it be not our constant study to follow them as they followed Christ, “in all lowliness and meekness, in long-suffering and loving forbearance”? And these considerations will be still further heightened in proportion as we remember, on the one side, our own worthlessness even at the best; and on the other, the vastness of that mercy, the boundlessness of those promises which are held out to us. For to a mind which is at all well disposed, nothing can be more touching, nothing more humbling, than to receive kindnesses from one whom we have injured. What, then, must be our feelings when we contemplate our behaviour to God, and how He has requited us! “ What heart can think of these things worthily?” or how can we sufficiently bow ourselves down with humility?

4. Let me, in conclusion, call to your thoughts what comfort and encouragement there is in this heavenly doctrine of “ the spirits of just men made perfect,” to be received into the eternal joy of their Lord. Comfort and encouragement in respect of ourselves, in making us patient, cheerful, and thankful; and in our conduct towards others, in making us brotherly and kind, and still looking forward to a happier meeting in a world where neither sin nor sorrow can enter. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “ Tracts for the Times. ”)

The immediate blessedness of departed saints:

What an announcement! For the manner in which this passage is introduced sufficiently shows that it is designed to impart encouragement and solace, to awaken spiritual-mindedness and hope. And yet there is something which seems to mock us, which may excite our consternation, depress our zeal. “Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Know we not otherwise? The link between ourselves and those whom we loved is broken. Does it not seem to trifle with us, when we are “bereaved indeed,” to tell us that we are come to them from whom we are so hopelessly and irreparably torn? “Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Our natural apprehensiveness is thus excited by the appeal. Creatures of flesh and blood, nothing seems so strongly to fasten upon our instinctive fear as spiritual contact and communication. Who would wish to behold the dearest friend whom he had ever loved, returning a spirit from the region of spirits, with their manner and mystery? What nerve could encounter the interview? What fondest heart could endure the shadowy embrace? And do we not shrink when we are bidden to approach this ghostly band? “Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Our ardour is depressed. Our sympathy is checked. Our imitation is debarred. Little fellowship can we claim with their refined essences, their unalloyed purity and bliss- they subsist beyond the range of our ideas and susceptibilities. But the purpose of the Holy Ghost in these words must stand: that purpose can only be tender, consolatory, assuring. And is it not most kind and cheering to inform and certify us, that they, who are thus departed, are not lost? That, rescued from the burden of this flesh and delivered from the hazard of this world, they expatiate in the freedom of a nature ethereal and incorruptible? And is it not animating and triumphant for us to perceive, in their release, the pledge and model of our exaltation, when our spirits shall throw off their oppressions, and shall attain to yonder state of immaterial being? Come, then, to these spirits--endeavour to conceive of them, to catch their fervours, to reciprocate their joys, to respond their strains!

I. “WHO ARE THEY? WHENCE CAME THEY?” They are not the natives of heaven. They have no proper birthright in it. They belong to a very different sphere. They are men. They have been prepared, while on the “earth which was given to them,” for their present abode. They have been brought hither by an act utterly independent of their original constitution. It is a state altogether strange and new. They constitute the just. Only the just can be in a condition of safety and favour, only the just can be endued with a nature of sanctity and love. Theirs is a true sense of right, of duty, the firm habit of fidelity.

II. THESE “JUST MEN” ARE NOT ANY LONGER IN OUR PRESENT SPHERE, OR KIND, OF EXISTENCE. We are summoned to meditate them in a new condition. The image of the earth is effaced. They are no more seen in a compound nature. They are “spirits.” All beside is left in the grave. Nothing material cleaves to them. But it is the higher essence--the intellect the consciousness--the self--which this disembodiment must suppose. How may this state of spiritualism be conceived? It is described as subsisting in intimate union with the Saviour. It is to “ depart and to be with Christ.” It is to “be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” He “receives” them. This is the great distinctiveness of their present condition. Their inward nature, drawn forth from the outward, is in a relationship; in an access to the Blessed Redeemer far different from any enjoyment of His presence, or communion with His person, known on earth. In addition to this immediate presence of the Redeemer-God, that light in which they see light, the light of the Lamb -the spirits of just men are “made perfect.” This is a discovery of their state which greatly explains itself. This spirit is matured in its powers and consummated in its joys. According to its capacities it is complete. All its true aims are unfolded. It is wrought out into its fullest development. It is a condition of pure spiritualism. Certain facts suggest themselves as the necessary accompaniments of such a condition.

1. The consciousness must be very distinct. The self revolves upon its own centre, ever substantiating what it really is, ever enjoying its proper exercises of understanding and emotion. This “hidden man” lives in his own light. Nothing is attached to the spirit which can divert this concentrated impression.

2. The inward life must be very strong. The whole soul, all that is within it, is absorbed in that deep and holy sense.

3. The intellectual faculty must be very clear. It still “ follows on to know the Lord,” it still “follows hard after God.”

4. The meditative abstraction must be very intent. 5. The adoring gratitude must be very earnest. 6. Its awaiting aspiration must be very glad. The disembodied saint ascertains

the future stage to which it constantly approaches, which is the last of all, and which is only wanted to complete his entire being. He understands its nature. He is assured of its certainty. Oh, the transition, the passage of the spirit, escaped from earth, released from mortality, to this glorious state! Spirit!--which hast long walked in darkness, brooded in sorrow, pined in

weariness--spirit! which wast long tossed with tempest, harassed by hostility, vexed with care--spirit! which didst long groan within thyself--spirit! long bound to sense and chained to infirmity spirit! long lacerated and bruised with inward wounds--spirit! the shadow of whose guilt hitherto lay upon thee though forgiven, the effort of whose depravity until now struggled in thee though subdued--Christian soul depart! Go forth to rest and home!

III. THESE SEPARATED SPIRITS ARE REPRESENTED TO US AS IN A STATE OF EXALTED ADVANCEMENT, DEPENDING UPON THEIR DISEMBODIMENT. This doctrine of immediate happiness was not entirely concealed from the ancient saints. Their language occasionally leads us to think that they had some conception of it (Psalms 16:10; Psalms 73:24; Psalms 49:15; Isaiah 57:2).Christ was the Conqueror. “He spoiled principalities and powers.” Of Him it was declared that He should “swallow up death in victory.” He ascends! He is “received up into glory!” There are not only the angels and the chariots in their thousands of thousands--there is another train! All holy spirits follow Him who had appeared a spirit to them in their place of keeping. They now forsake that place for “things above.” And, therefore, it is said in the text: “Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect.” But this is asserted as a privilege unknown before. It arises from the new covenant in contradistinction from the old. It is explained: “God having provided some better things for us” (than for those who died before the rising of Christ) “that they without us” (without living until our time and under our dispensation) “should not be made perfect.” But they are now made perfect, in common with us. This “perfection “ is bestowed upon all past, as well as for all future, time, and “ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect!”

1. The spirits of just men will be made perfect in holiness. 2. Such spirits are raised to the perfection of wisdom. 3. These souls of the departed are perfectly secure. 4. A fulness of beatitude must be contained in their perfection.

They can know no want: yet are they full of holy desires, ever waking only to be satisfied, ever longing only to be fulfilled. The vessel at each moment overflows: but at every moment it also is enlarged. There are pleasures for evermore. The source of all is in the Infinite Plenitude. The river of life proceedeth out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

IV. THERE ARE RELATIONS WHICH UNITE THE JUST ON EARTH, AND THE SPIRITS OF THE JUST IN HEAVEN, NOTWITHSTANDING THE DISPARITY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE CONDITIONS. Certain affinities may be discovered between mind and mind in this world, which are not restricted to personal intercourse, which operate as in defiance of the laws of space. And the announcement of the text is but the enlargement of such mental affinities. It is not said that we shall come to the spirits of just men made perfect, but that we are.

1. There is unity. To impress this upon our minds the Church is shadowed by various figures, all of which have respect to its indivisibility. It is a city, a corporate community, but all, who are enrolled in it, partake of common immunities, and are “fellow-citizens with the saints.” It is a household. It is a household of faith and of God. They of this household are all they who are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. “Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” Its distribution in these different abodes affects not its identity. It shall find even in heaven many mansions. It is a body. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”

This, then, is no fiction nor ideal. It is based on our union with Christ. We are all one in Him. We are joined to the Lord, and are one spirit. It is, therefore, declared to have been the design of God in redemption, to bind, in communion and identification, all His people, however scattered abroad on earth, or however raised to the glories of a higher existence. “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.” “And having made peace through the blood of his Cross, by Him to reconcile,” or to unite, “all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” These are the links which separation cannot weaken, and which death cannot dissolve.

2. There is resemblance. Heaven is doubtless a place. But we must rather conceive of it as a state of mind. The heaven of perfect spirits must be chiefly this. This state of mind--far transcending all present attainment of knowledge, sanctity, and joy--consists not in estrangement and extreme. It is not alien from what is now experienced. There is no principle, no companionship, no employment, no rapture, of that region, but has in the Christian on earth its foretaste and counterpart. He “hath the Father and the Son.” “The Spirit dwelleth in Him.” “He hath eternal life.” He is a “partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.” The heaven which he enters

and enjoys is but the expansion of principles and emotions he long has known. He has been changed already into the image of the Divine glory, “from glory to glory.” He wanted but this consummation. The last of dying triumph, and the first of empyrean rapture, may thus easily and naturally blend: and in the yearnings of a kindred mind, we now come to the spirits of just men made perfect. Do we not know it? Have we not found it? Are now our affections set on things above? Does not the holy city come down from God out of heaven? Is not our conversation in heaven?

3. There is endearment. A holy affinity unites us to the spirits of just men made perfect. They are the Church of the first-born: they are our elder brethren. Our desire is to them. Are they weaned from us? Are we forgotten? Is all sympathy withdrawn? Hearts grow not selfish in heaven. Spirits made perfect can abandon no love which it was ever their right to form, their duty to maintain, their benefit to exercise: their perfection is the pledge that each holy attachment is raised to that perfection.

4. There is appropriation. We already have obtained a portion in heaven. “Joint-heirs with Christ Jesus,” He has claimed it for us. He is our

Forerunner. “He has for us entered.” He “now appears in the presence of God for us.” We “come to the spirits of just men made perfect,” for they inhabit our country, they dwell ill our home. They have preceded us, but “things to come are ours,” and their title is no surer than our own. (R. W. Hamilton, D. D.)Disembodied saints

I. THEY CONSCIOUSLY LIVE IN A DISEMBODIED STATE. II. THEY CONSCIOUSLY LIVE IN A MORALLY PERFECT STATE. III. THEY CONSCIOUSLY LIVE IN A GLORIOUSLY SOCIAL STATE. IV. THEY CONSCIOUSLY LIVE IN A SPIRITUALLY ACCESSIBLE STATE.

1. We come to them in a loving memory of their histories. 2. We come to them by appropriating their principles of action. 3. We come to them by a participation of the sources of their joy. 4. We come to them in earnest hope.

Lessons: 1. The worthlessness of all worldly and adventitious distinctions. 2. The paltriness of religious sectarianism. 3. The infinite value of Christ’s office. 4. The blessedness of death to the good. (Homilist.)

Advent of the living to spirits departed

“Spirits”--because resurrection is future. The bodies still tenant the grave or the deep--only the spirits are free. This is that state of “deliverance from the bondage of the flesh,” in which Jesus Himself, quickened with a new vitality, went and preached, between death and resurrection, to “spirits,” themselves separate from the body. This is that state, “Paradise” Jesus called it, in which the dying penitent beside Him should that day be His companion, spirit with spirit. “Just men,” or righteous: not in that self-righteousness “which is of the law”; not in that righteousness which Christ Himself, He said, came not so much as to “call” or to evangelise; on the contrary, “just” in the justice of the Just One--righteous in the merit of a full justification, and in the grace of a progressive and at last perfect sanctification. “Just men made perfect.” Completed and consummated in that holiness which, begun below by the work of the Holy Spirit, is at last finished and accomplished for ever; to be sullied no more, nor grieved any more, by the contact or presence of evil: sealed now with the stamp of a blessed immortality, and waiting only the gift of a transformed body to make the whole man anew in the very image and likeness of God. “Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect.” We read and speak often of Christ’s coming--His coming in the flesh, His coming in the Spirit, His coming in glory. Here we read of an advent, not of Christ, but of the Christian; an advent, not in the future tense, but in the perfect--not anticipative or progressive, but finished and done. But this is not the world which the text opens. The text bids us see ourselves tenants and citizens of a world out of sight. Like the prophet’s servant in Dothan, we are to open our eyes to a mountain full of chariots and horsemen of fire--and those “chariots” of God are “thousands of angels”; and those “horsemen” are God’s saints, already gone from amongst the living, but present with us, for companionship and for sympathy and for communion still. You have had, you have made, an advent--an advent for abode, an advent for perpetuity. “Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect.”

1. The first and least thing here said--itself great and glorious too--is the union of the Christian living with the Christian dead in their faith and in their example. It is a thought not without comfort, that, as Christians, we have an ancestry and a pedigree. The continuity is not broken. The Church of all time is one. Then disgrace not your family. Bring no blot upon your escutcheon. You are come to the spirits of the perfect. You join on to them in the genealogical tree. Be followers, be imitators of them, as they once, in their day and generation, were of Christ.

2. Ye are come to the spirits and souls of the righteous in their sympathy. There is a living as well as a memorial sympathy between the Church on earth and the Church in heaven. All the glimpses given us in Holy Scripture of the mind and life of Paradise seem to point this way. It was of no sleeping soul that Christ spoke on the Cross to the malefactor beside Him. It is no bathing in Lethe, for the obliteration of earth’s memories and the annihilation of human affections, which the gospel opens to us as the prize of the race to him that overcometh. “Rest with us” is something different from this selfish, this isolated, this drowsy repose. Even nature demands something different. There is an instinct as well as a revelation of this advent of the living to the departed. We want it for comfort, we want it for admonition. God has knit together His elect in one communion and fellowship. There is a communion of saints as well as a Catholic Church; the militant and the perfected are not two societies, they are one. Have any of as a friend in the happy land--father or mother, sister or wife, friend closer than a brother? Remember then, remember for use as well as for consolation, that you “are come” to that other--come, by an advent such as there is none between the living. The stripping off of this carcase gives a sympathy, gives a contact, gives an intuition of love such as cannot be had here. You are come to the dead, as you cannot come to the living. See then that you give joy, only joy, to the inhabitants of that world.

3. “Ye are come to the spirits of the righteous” in their single, their engrossing devotion to Christ their Lord. It is said, I scarcely care to ask whether in history or fiction, that there was one from whom had been taken away by the stroke of death “ the desire of his eyes,” the wife of his youth. He had laid her in the earth; yet night after night she visited him in his chamber, herself yet not herself, the same but a thousandfold more beautiful--and in that periodical converse, making night day for him and darkness light, he half forgot his bereavement and his desolation. One night she came, and he could not repress an exclamation upon her peculiar beauty. “I never saw you,” he said, “so lovely.” She said, “It is my last visit to you: to-morrow I am to see Him, and after that sight I shall have no eye for aught else.” He saw her no more. Is not this, perhaps, the answer to those questions so often agitated by the mourner as to the future sight and recognition of friends? Be sure that nothing shall be denied thee in that world, which could give thee solace or satisfaction. If thou desirest there

thy friend’s face or voice or hand, be sure thou shalt have it. Nevertheless, when thou shalt have been there but a little while; when, if so it be, after a season of preparation, as it were of purifying and anointing for “the day of the espousals,” thou shalt actually have seen the King in His beauty--I say not that thou shalt be debarred then from other sight or other converse; but this I say--the desire for aught else will have left thee; all other love, not destroyed, not diminished, rather ten thousandfold enhanced, will yet be absorbed and swallowed up in that; thy loved one, and thou, will be so wrapped up in another love and higher, that the selfish love will be gone, and only the Divine love will continue. (Dean Vaughan.)

Jesus the Mediator of the new covenantThe messenger of the covenant and its seal:

I. GOD’S REVELATION TO US IS IN THE FORM OF A COVENANT. Just as when a king gives forth a proclamation, he is bound by the fact that he gave it forth, so God, out of all the infinite possibilities of His action, condescends to tell us what His line is to be, and He will adhere to it. He lets us see the works of the clock, if I may so say, not wholly, but in so far as we are affected by His action. What, then, are the terms of this covenant? We have them drawn out, first, in the words of Jeremiah, who apprehended, when he was dwelling in the midst of that external system, that it could no be a final system; and next, by the writer of this letter quoting the prophet; who, in the midst of the vanishing of that which could be shaken, saw emerging, like the fairy form of the fabled goddess out of the sea-foam, the vast and permanent outlines of a nobler system. The promises of the covenant are, then, full forgiveness as the foundation of all, and built upon that knowledge of God inwardly illuminating and making a man independent of external helps, though he may sometimes be grateful for them; then a mutual possession, which is based upon these, whereby I, even I, can venture to say, God is mine, and, more wonderful still, I, even I, can venture to believe that He bends down from heaven, and says: “And thou, thou art Mine!” And then, as the result of all--named first, but coming last in the order of Nature--the law of His commandment will be so written upon the heart that delight and duty are spelt with the same letters, and His will is our will. If these, then, be the articles of the paction, think for a moment of the blessedness that lies lived in this ancient, and to some of us musty, thought of a covenant of God’s. It gives a basis for knowledge. Unless He audibly and articulately and verifiably utters His mind and will, I know not where men are to go to get it. And then, again, let me remind you

how here is the one foothold, if I may so say, for confidence. If God hath not spoken there is nothing to reckon upon. There are perhapses, probabilities, if you like, possibilities, but nothing beyond. And no man can build a faith on a peradventure.

II. JESUS CHRIST IS THE EXECUTOR OF THIS COVENANT. The depth of the thought is only reached when we recognise His divinity and His humanity. He is the ladder with its foot on earth and its top in heaven. Because God dwells in Him, and the Word became flesh, He is able to lay His hand upon both, and to bring God to man, and man to God. He brings God to man by the declaration of His nature incarnate in humanity. And, on the other hand, He brings man to God; for He stands to each of us as our true Brother, and united to us by such close and real bonds as that all which He has been and done may be ours if we join ourselves to Him by faith. And He brings men to God, because in Him only do we find the drawings that incline wayward and wandering hearts to the Father. And He seals for us that great covenant in His own Person and work, in so far as what He in manhood has done has made it possible that such promises should be given to us. And, still further, He is the Mediator of the covenant, in so far as He Himself possesses in His humanity all the blessings which manhood is capable of deriving from the Father, and He has them all in order that He may give them all. There is the great Reservoir from which all men may fill their tiny cups.

III. NOTE THE SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD WHICH SEALS THE COVENANT. The blood shed establishes the covenant; and the blood sprinkled brings us into it. If Jesus had not died there would have been no promises for us, beginning with forgiveness and ending in wills delighting in God’s law. It is “the new covenant in His blood.” The death of Christ is ever present to the Divine mind and determines the Divine action. Further, that sprinkling, which introduced technically and formally these people into that covenant, represents for us the personal application to ourselves of the power of His death and of His life, by which we may make all God’s promises our own, and be cleansed from all sin. It is “sprinkled.” Then it is capable of division into indefinitely small portions, and of the closest contact with individuals. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)Christ the Mediator of the covenant

I. Consider Christ, our Mediator, in His REASON. His person is amiable; He is all made up of love and beauty. He is the effigies of His Father, “the express image of His person.” Consider

1. Christ’s person in two natures. 2. His two natures in one person.

II. Consider Christ, our Mediator, in His GRACES: these are the sweet savour of His ointments that make the virgins love Him. Christ, our blessed Mediator, is said to be, “full of grace and truth.” He had the anointing of the Spirit without measure. Grace in Christ is after a more eminent and glorious manner than it is in any of the saints.

1. Jesus Christ, our Mediator, hath perfection in every grace. He is a panoply, magazine, and storehouse of all heavenly treasure, all fulness.

2. There is a never-failing fulness of grace in Christ. 3. Grace in Christ is communicative, His grace is for us; the holy oil of the

Spirit was poured on the head of this blessed Aaron that it might run down upon us. Use

1. Admire the glory of this Mediator; He is God-man, He is co-essentially glorious with the Father.

2. If Christ be God-man in one person, then look unto Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

3. Is Jesus Christ God and man in one person? This, as it shows the dignity of believers, that they are nearly related to one of the greatest persons that is,” in Him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” so it is of unspeakable comfort. Christ’s two natures being married together, the Divine and human, all that Christ in either of His natures can do for believers, He will do. (T. Watson.)

The privileges and blessings of the new covenantI. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THIS GRAND AND AMIABLE CHARACTER BY

WHICH OUR BLESSED LORD IS HERE REPRESENTED TO US AS MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT? The Mediator betwixt God and man, acting in the Father’s name, and by His authority, and acting in our behoof, and for our salvation.

1. But more particularly, in our serious attention to this subject, our urgent need of Him, in this great capacity, may first naturally occur to our thoughts. What man could not do, God hath effected. Our help is laid upon One who is mighty and able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through Him.

2. For it is to be observed that Jesus Christ is constituted and appointed by the Father Himself to this great office, to be Mediator of the new covenant.

3. But further. The Mediator of the new covenant is fully qualified to discharge this great office, to sustain this high character. The Redeemer of man is the Sea of God. Hence the infinite value and efficacy of His meritorious sufferings, and prevailing mediation

4. But He is the Mediator of the new covenant, through whom, and in virtue of whose atonement for sin, and satisfaction to Divine justice, the covenant is established and ratified, and all its benefits purchased. In a word, the full pardon of sin; established peace with God; the adoption of children; the grace of His Spirit; victory over sin and death; and a state of eternal happiness in the world to come.

5. But further, as Mediator of this covenant, He acts with God for man, that we may be brought to a compliance with the terms of the covenant, be reconciled in our hearts unto God, and live as the ransomed of the Lord. This is evidently necessary, in order to our receiving the blessings of this covenant. This work of mediation is carried on by His Word, by His servants speaking in His name, by the ordinances of the gospel, and by the influences of His Spirit.

6. He is the Mediator of the new covenant, who carrieth on the blessed work of mediation for us, now in His exalted state, and will continue to do so, until all its purposes shall be finally accomplished.

II. Consider WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE EXPRESSIONS “ WE ARE COME TO HIM.” Ye believe in Him as the Mediator of the new covenant. Ye see His excellency and all-sufficiency. Ye have received Him to be your Redeemer; ye have assented to the terms of His covenant on your part, and have yielded yourselves unto the Lord through this Mediator. Ye are spiritually united to Him. Ye live in a state of union and friendship with Him. Ye abide in Him by faith and love, and ere long shall ye be for ever with Him. That communion is now begun, which shall be hereafter perfected; because He liveth ye shall live for ever also. (J. Williamson.)What is required in the Mediator between God and men:

He must have the natural power of God and the natural power of man. In an advocacy so original and peculiar as that which involves mediation between God and man, it is past our ability to conceive how it could be otherwise. The stairway of light seen in the splendid imageries of the patriarch’s dream, touched both worlds, or it would not have been a medium of communication; a bridge flung across the river must touch both shores, or it could not be a medium of passage;

and it seems but the language of fair analogy to say that a mediator between God and man must, in the mystery of his being, touch both natures, or he could not be the medium of intercourse. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

The blood of sprinklingThe blood of Abel and the blood of Jesus

I. JESUS’ BLOOD SPEAKS BETTER THINGS IN GENERAL. What did the blood of Abel say? Was it not the blood of testimony? When Abel fell to the ground beneath his brother’s club, he bore witness to spiritual religion. He died a martyr for the truth that God accepteth men according to their faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ, being also a testifier and witness for the faith of God, spake better things than Abel, because He had more to speak, and spake from more intimate acquaintance with God. Moreover, the blood of Abel spake good things in that it was the proof of faithfulness. His blood as it fell to the ground spake this good thing--it said,” Great God, Abel is faithful to Thee.” But the blood of Jesus Christ testifies to yet greater faithfulness still, for it was the sequel of a spotlessly perfect life, which no act of sin had ever defiled; whereas Abel’s death furnished, it is true, a life of faith, but not a life of perfection. Moreover, we must never forget that all that Abel’s blood could say as it fell to the ground was but the shadow of that more glorious substance of which Jesus’ death assures us. Jesus did not typify atonement, but offered it. It is well to add that our Lord’s person was infinitely more worthy and glorious than that of Abel, and consequently His death must yield to us a more golden-mouthed discourse than the death of a mere man like Abel.

II. Now we will remember that THE BLOOD OF JESUS SPEAKS BETTER THINGS TO GOD than the blood of Abel did. The blood of Abel cried in the ears of the Lord, for thus He said to Cain, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.” That cry did not go round to seek a mediator, but went directly to the judgment-seat of God, and laid an accusation against the murderer. Can you stand at Calvary now and view the flowing of the Saviour’s blood from hands, and feet, and side? What are your own reflections as to what that blood says to God? That blood crieth with a loud voice to God, and what doth it say? Does it not say this? “O God, this time it is not merely a creature which bleeds, but though the body that hangs upon the Cross is the creature of Thy Holy Spirit, it is Thine own Son who now pours out His soul unto death. O God, wilt Thou despise the cries and the tears, the blood of Thine own Son?” Then, moreover, the voice would plead, “It is not only Thy Son, but Thy perfectly

innocent Son, in whom was no necessity for dying, because He had no original sin which would have brought corruption on Him, who had moreover no actual sin, who throughout life had done nothing worthy of death or of bonds. Canst Thou see it, Thou God of all, canst Thou see the infinite holy and just Son of Thy heart led here to die, and not feel the force of the blood as it cries to Thee?” Was there not added to this fact that our Lord died to vindicate the honour of His Father? “For Thee, O God, for Thee He dies! If Thou wert content to stain Thine honour or to restrain Thy mercy, there were no need that He should give Himself.” Is there not power in this voice? Yet over and above this the blood must have pleaded thus with God:--“O God, the blood which is now being shed, thus honourable and glorious in itself, is being poured out with a motive which is Divinely gracious. O God, it is a chain for God in heaven which binds the victim to the horns of the altar, a chain of everlasting love, of illimitable goodness.” Now you and I could not see a man suffer out of pure benevolence without being moved by his sufferings, and shall God be unmoved? the perfectly holy and gracious God?

III. Furthermore, JESUS’ BLOOD SPEAKS BETTER THINGS TO US IN OUR OWN HEARTS than the blood of Abel. When the sinner looks to Jesus slain, he may well say, “If I did not know that all this blood was shed for me as well as by me, my fears would multiply a thousandfold; but when I think that that precious blood is shed instead of mine, when I think that that is the blood of God’s own dear Son, whom He has smitten instead of smiting me, making Him bear the whole of His wrath that I might not bear it, O nay God, what comforts come streaming from this blessed fountain!” Just in proportion as thought of murder would make Cain wretched, in the same proportion ought faith to make you happy as you think upon Jesus Christ slain; for the blood of Christ must have a more powerful voice than that of Abel, and it cries therefore more powerfully for you than the blood of Abel cried against his brother Cain.

IV. JESUS’ BLOOD, EVEN IN MY TEXT, SPEAKS BETTER THINGS THAN THAT OF ABEL. It speaks the same things but in a better sense. Did you notice the first text? God said unto Cain, “What hast thou done?” Now that is what Christ’s blood says to you: “What hast thou done?” Ah! Lord, done enough to make me weep for ever if it were not that Thou hast wept for me. What I want mainly to indicate is this. If you notice in the second text, this blood is called “the blood of sprinkling.” Whether Abel’s blood sprinkled Cain or not I cannot say, but if it did, it must have added to his horror to have had the blood actually upon him.

But this adds to the joy in our case, for the blood of Jesus is of little value to us until it is sprinkled upon us. Faith dips the hyssop in the atoning blood and sprinkles it upon the soul, and the soul is clean. The application of the blood of Jesus is the true ground of joy, and the sure source of Christian comfort; the application of the blood of Abel must have been horror, but the application of the blood of Jesus is the root and ground of all delight. There is another matter in the text with which I conclude. The apostle says, “We are come to the blood of sprinkling.” Now, from the blood of Abel every reasonable man would flee away. He that has murdered his fellow desires to put a wide distance between himself and the accusing corpse. But we come to the blood of Jesus. It is a topic in which we delight as our contemplations bring us nearer and nearer to it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)The blood of sprinkling

I. WHAT IS IT? What is this “blood of sprinkling”? In a few words, “the blood of sprinkling” represents the pains, the sufferings, the humiliation, and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He endured oil the behalf of guilty man. He properly, but yet most generously and spontaneously, came and shed His precious blood in the stead of sinners, to bring the guilty near to God. But the text does not merely speak of the blood shed, which I have explained to you, but of “the blood of sprinkling.” This is the atonement applied for Divine purposes, and specially applied to our own hearts and consciences by faith.

1. The blood of sprinkling is the centre of the Divine manifestation under the gospel. Observe its innermost place in the passage before us.

2. I next ask you to look at the text and observe that this sprinkling of the blood, as mentioned by the Holy Ghost in this passage, is absolutely identical with Jesus Himself. If you have done with the blood of sprinkling, you have done with Jesus altogether; He will never part with His mediatorial glory as our sacrifice, neither can we come to Him if we ignore that character.

3. Observe that this “blood of sprinkling” is put in close contact with “the new covenant.” To us Jesus in His atonement is Alpha and Omega, in Him the covenant begins and ends.

4. But I want you to notice that according to the text the blood is the voice of the new dispensation. Observe that on Sinai there was “the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they heard that entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more.” You look,

therefore, under the new dispensation, for a voice, and you do not come to any till you reach the last object in the list, and there see” the blood of sprinkling that speaketh.” Here, then, is the voice of the gospel; it is not the voice of a trumpet, nor the voice of words spoken in terrible majesty; but the blood speaks, and assuredly there is no sound more piercing, more potent, more prevailing.

5. Observe, that this voice is identical with the voice of the Lord Jesus. 6. This blood is always speaking. It always remains a plea with God, and a

testimony to men. 7. This precious blood speaks “ better things than that of Abel.” It saith,

“There is redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.” “He His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we were healed.” “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” The voice of the blood is this, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

II. WHERE ARE WE? I have to explain what is meant by the expression which is found in the twenty-second verse of the chapter, “Ye are come.” Link the twenty-second verse with this twenty-fourth, and read, “Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling.”

1. Well, first, ye are come to the hearing of the gospel of the atoning sacrifice. You are come to hear, not of your sin and its doom, not of the last judgment and the swift destruction of the enemies of God, but of love to the guilty, pity for the miserable, mercy for the wicked.

2. In a better sense, going a little further, we have not only come to the blood of sprinkling by hearing about it, but we have come to it because the great God now deals with us upon methods which are founded and grounded upon the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

3. Further, there is a far more effectual way of coming to the blood of sprinkling than this--when by faith that blood is sprinkled upon our souls. This is absolutely needed: the blood shed must become to each one of us the blood sprinkled.

4. Further, to come to this blood of sprinkling means thankfully to enjoy all that comes to us through the blood of sprinkling.

5. I think, once more, that this coming to the blood of sprinkling means also that we feel the full effect of it in our lives. The man who knows that Jesus shed His blood for him, and has had that blood applied to his conscience, becomes a sin-hating man, consecrated to Him who has cleansed him.

III. WHAT THEN? 1. Do not refuse the voice of Jesus by cold indifference. 2. When you resolve to study the doctrine, do not approach it with prejudice

through misapprehension. 3. Do not refuse the voice of the Lord Jesus by rejecting the principle of

expiation. 4. Do not refuse this voice of mercy by preferring your own way of salvation.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Verses 25-29Hebrews 12:25-29

Refuse not Him that speakethThe voice of God in the vicissitudes of humanity

I.THE VOICE OF GOD IS VARIOUSLY UTTERED IN DIFFERENT AGES OF THE WORLD. God speaks to rational beings on earth in two general ways

1. Natural. Everything around and within us is a book; all these are materials of knowledge--the soul alone is the reader, the student, the philosopher, the interpreter; a world is spread out by God, impressed with principles and laws for man, that he may look through them to Him.

2. Supernatural. II. THE VOICE OF GOD PRODUCES GREAT CHANGES IN THE

INSTITUTIONS OF MEN. There are two classes of things, and but two--things that may be shaken, and things that may not be shaken. There is one Being who exists by necessity--the absolute, immutable God. The nearer things are to God, the more fixed they are; the farther from God, the more changeable.

III. THE SHAKING OF THINGS MUTABLE IS DESIGNED TO LEAD MEN TO THE IMMUTABLE. The immutable things of Judaism are preserved in Christianity; its God, spirit of worship, law--these are retained.

IV. GOD, BY ALL THESE THINGS, BRINGS MEN TO THE TRUE WORSHIP OF HIMSELF. (Caleb Morris.)The doctrine of Christ not to be refused

I. To REFUSE HIM THAT SPEAKETH, WHICH MEANS CONTEMPT OF GOD, WHO OUT OF GREATEST MERCY HAD RENDERED SALVATION UPON FAIREST TERMS.

II. THE REASON IS TAKEN FROM THE HEINOUSNESS OF THE SIN, AND THE GRIEVOUSNESS OF THE PUNISHMENT, BOTH WHICH ARE SET FORTH BY A COMPARISON IN QUANTITY. Let us apply this unto ourselves, and consider

1. Who speaks unto us. 2. What He speaks. 3. From whence He speaks.

Hear! hear! I. THERE IS NEED OF THIS EXHORTATION FROM MANY

CONSIDERATIONS. 1. The excellence of the word. It claims obedient attention. 2. The readiness of Satan to prevent our receiving the Divine word. 3. Our own indisposition to receive the holy, heavenly message. 4. We have rejected too long already. It is to be feared that we may continue

to do so; but our right course is to hearken at once. 5. The word comes in love to our souls; let us therefore heed it, and render

love for love. II. THERE ARE MANY WAYS OF REFUSING HIM THAT SPEAKETH.

1. Not hearing. Absence from public worship, neglect of Biblereading. “Turn away from Him.”

2. Hearing listlessly, as if half asleep, and unconcerned. 3 Refusing to believe. Intellectually believing, but not with the heart.

4. Raising quibbles. Hunting up difficulties, favouring unbelief. 5. Being offended. Angry with the gospel, indignant at plain speech, opposing

honest personal rebuke. 6. Perverting His words. Twisting and wresting Scripture. 7. Bidding Him depart. Steeling the conscience, trifling with conviction,

resorting to frivolous company for relief. 8. Reviling Him. Denying His deity, hating His gospel, and His holy way. 9. Persecuting Him. Turning upon His people as a whole, or assailing them as

individuals. III. THERE ARE MANY CAUSES OF THIS REFUSING.

1. Stolid indifference, which causes a contempt of all good things.

2. Self-righteousness, which makes self an idol, and therefore rejects the living Saviour.

3. Self-reliant wisdom, which is too proud to hear the voice of God. 4. Hatred of holiness, which prefers the wilful to the obedient, the lustful to the

pure, the selfish to the Divine. 5. Fear of the world, which listens to threats, or bribes, or flatteries, and dares

not act aright. 6. Procrastination, which cries “to-morrow,” but means “never.” 7. Despair and unbelief, which declare the gospel to be powerless to save,

and unavailable as a consolation. IV. REFUSING TO HEAR CHRIST, THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY IS

DESPISED. “Him that speaketh from heaven.” 1. He is of heavenly nature, and reveals to us what He has known of God and

heaven. 2. He came from heaven, armed with heavenly authority. 3. tie speaks from heaven at this moment by His eternal Spirit in Holy

Scripture, the ordinances and the preaching of the gospel. 4. He will speak from heaven at the judgment. He is Himself God, and

therefore all that He saith hath divinity within it. V. THE DOOM TO BE FEARED IF WE REFUSE CHRIST. Those to whom

Moses spake on earth, who refused him, escaped not. 1. Let us think of their doom, and learn that equally sure destruction will

happen to all who refuse Christ. Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The murmurers dying in the wilderness. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

2. Let us see how some have perished in the Church. Judas, Ananias, and Sapphira, &c.

3. Let us see how others perish who remain in the world, arid refuse to quit it for the fold of Christ. They shall not escape by annihilation, nor by purgatory, nor by universal restitutions. They shall not escape by infidelity, hardness of heart, cunning or hypocrisy. They have refused the only way of escape, and therefore they must perish for ever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The plea of the gospel:To “refuse” is a positive rejection of the word. But to “turn away” may be only

neglect and disregard. To treat the message carelessly is to “ turn away” from the speaker. And as the ancient people were condemned for refusing, so may we be far more terribly overwhelmed in destruction if we turn away from Christ. Christ in

His preached Word, Christ in His perpetuated Church, Christ in the continued ordinances of His dispensation, is for ever speaking unto men. If you scorn, then, the feeblest presentation of the gospel, it is not the preacher that you despise, but the Lord Jesus Christ who speaks through the preacher.

I. THE MANIFESTATION OF TRUTH IN THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST HAS RECEIVED THE HIGHEST SANCTION WHICH CAN BE AFFORDED FOR OBEDIENCE AND FAITH. Do you ask for dignity in the person who claims your allegiance and evokes your faith? Where shall you find a higher worth and glory of personal nature and character than were in Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you impressible by power, and will you allow your conscience and heart to follow, where first your senses and imagination have been aroused? What more Divine glory and power shall you anywhere find than in Him, who stills a tempest with a word, who calls the dead back to life, and is the master of the unseen world, whom the very demons hear and swiftly and abjectly obey? Perhaps you ask for wisdom and the light of an intelligence that shines with the lustre of the mind of God. Go and listen to Him who taught upon the mountains, or compelled the wondering multitudes to a reverent attention, as He unfolded the mysteries of the kingdom in the parables that linked the simplest facts and events of earthly life to the sublimest truths of the Divine nature and government. Does moral heroism arouse you? Will the signs of the spiritual and the Divine, found in the conflicts of a true and tried life, stir your heart and compel your admiration? Where in the world hath ever shone a light so signalised by truth and bravery, by virtue, and perfection, as the life of Jesus Christ? Perhaps you will yield to the claims of holiness and justice. Like the ancient statue which broke the awful silence in a deep sweet note of music, when the morning sunlight first fell upon it, your nature answers with an echo of fine melody, to the revelation of law, and to the outshining of the claim of God. Behold, how it breaks in clearest light, from the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Or perchance to all these forces you only turn a hard, insensate nature. But surely you can melt beneath the influence of love. The traveller drew his cloak the tighter when the blustering north wind blew, but he cast off his covering when the sunshine came out. Wilt thou not, then, throw from thee thy coverings of self-righteousness, and rebellion, when the grace and pity of thy God stream upon thee from the offered sacrifice of the dying Lamb?

II. THE NEGLECT OF THIS MESSAGE OF GRACE IS THE DEEPEST SIN WHICH CAN RENDER A MAN OBNOXIOUS TO THE JUST PUNISHMENT OF GOD. TO wrong a stranger of his stranger’s right, to rob even an enemy of what

justly belongs to him--these are crimes which human law of the imperfect sort punishes. But what is the deeply dyed shame of love outraged? What of the wickedness which tears the hand that is extended to help? These are enormities at which human nature stands aghast. And this is the sin which you commit, when you “refuse Him that speaketh from heaven.”

III. ESCAPE FROM THE RESULT OF THIS UNBELIEF IS ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE. A company of shipwrecked sailors are on yonder raft. They drift helplessly upon the wide ocean. They are thousands of miles from land. That frail bundle of spars can never bring them to the shore. Storms may arise, and if the winds blow, and the waters beat in mountainous surges upon them, they must perish. But see, a vessel comes in sight. It is an ocean steamer. It bears down to them. It comes alongside, and offers to take them on board. Thereupon, they begin to speculate whether they may not still be saved, even if they refuse to accept the offer of succour, and remain upon the raft. Who would not pronounce them mad to the last degree of madness, if they hesitate to climb on board? The question would not even suggest itself. While we speak, every man of them has left the broken spars, and is safe on the deck of the ship. What then of you, of any of us, who wonder whether there may not be yet a chance, even if the salvation of Christ is not made your own? The voice from heaven is speaking. To reject it, is the deepest guilt. What hope can there be if this be not accepted? (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)Refusing God:

1. Doubt of His truth, dissatisfaction with His Word, is perhaps one of the most prominent features of such refusal. When a person begins to say, “This in the Bible is, perhaps, an hyperbolical and figurative phrase; it needs to be palliated in order that we may reach its truth; it needs to be subtracted from in order that we may attain the exact meaning of the Spirit of God”; he shows his tendency to depart from the living God.

2. A second evidence is, disagreement with God. How can two walk together except they be agreed? If two persons are in partnership, they can agree so long as they work together; but if one feels one course to be right and follows it, and the other, another, the two are at issue, and the one departs from the other. Departure begins at the smallest possible point of refusal. When a line starts from another, when a tangent starts from a circle, or one line diverges from another with which it ran parallel, it may be minutely, almost imperceptibly at the commencement, but, however, it will

issue in an opposite and contrary direction. So your divergence from God may begin about a small matter; a very little which God demands but which you refuse; a little matter which you think ought to be in your way, but which God has said shall be in the opposite way; but that divergence which begins on that little fact in that little Bible may issue in results disastrous as imagination cannot conceive, and terrible as are pourtrayed in the condition of the lost by the Holy Spirit of God.

3. Another element is, dissatisfaction with what God is and what God does. God rules in providence. Some great blow falls upon your home, some disastrous loss occurs in your circumstances; you have light enough to see that God is in this, and grace enough to feel that it is God’s hand that strikes the blow, and you murmur against God; you object to religion; you are dissatisfied with Him who is its author, and you begin a course of departure from the living God. The tenant leaves the house with which he is dissatisfied; the friend leaves the friend’s company with whom he is offended; and you, dissatisfied with the providential government of God, believing that He has punished when He ought to have rewarded, arrested when He ought to have given impulse, retire from Him, forget His Word, forsake His sanctuary, and refuse Him. And such a course, I again remind you, may begin from very little indeed, but it must issue in terrible results. A person departing from God walks in the company of the ungodly. He stands in the way of sinners. Then, he sits in the seat of the scornful. Here you have, then, the course of one who refuses God. What are some of the signs or evidences that a Christian can take cognisance of?

4. Another evidence is excessive love of the world. “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” I have submitted these as simple tests or criteria by which to ascertain either our growing acceptance of God, or refusing Him. It is a serious question, Am I a child of God? Is my heart set on heavenly things? (J. Cumming, D. D.)

Refusing God’s voice:I. THE SOLEMN POSSIBILITY OF REFUSAL. NOW, to gain the whole

solemnity of this exhortation, it is very needful to remember that it is addressed to professing Christians, who have in so far exercised real faith as that, by it, they “ are come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.” Then, again, it is to be noted that the refusal here spoken about, and against which we professing Christians are thus solemnly warned, is not necessarily entire intellectual

rejection of the gospel and its message. For the Israelites, who made the original “ refusal,” to which that which we are warned against is paralleled, recognised the voice that they would not listen to as being God’s voice; and just because it was His voice wanted to hear no more of it. Then, remember, too, that this refusal, which at bottom is the rising up of the creature’s will, tastes, inclinations, desires against the manifest and recognised will of God, may, and as a matter of fact often does, go along with a great deal of lip reverence and unconsciously hypocritical worship. The unconscious refusal is the formidable and fatal one. Will God’s voice be heard in a heart that is all echoing with earthly wishes, loudly claimant for their gratification, with sensual desires passionately demanding their food to be flung to them? Will God’s voice be heard in a heart where the janglings of contending wishes and earthly inclinations are perpetually loud in their brawling? Will it be heard in a heart which has turned itself into a sounding-board for all the noises of the world and the voices of men? The voice of God is heard in silence, and not amidst the noises of our own hearts. And they who, unconsciously perhaps, of what they are doing, open their ears wide to hear what they themselves, in the lower parts of their souls, prescribe, or bow themselves in obedience to the precepts and maxims of men round them, are really refusing to hear the voice of God.

II. THE SLEEPLESS VIGILANCE NECESSARY TO COUNTERACT THE TENDENCY TO RERUSAL. “See that ye refuse not.” A warning finger is, as it were, lifted. Take heed against the tendencies that lie in yourself and the temptations around you. The consciousness of the possibility of the danger is half the battle. If there is any need to dwell upon specific methods by which this vigilance and continual self-distrust may work out for us our seem try, one would say--by careful trying to reverse all these conditions which lead us surely to the refusal. Silencethe passions, the wishes, the voices of your own wills and tastes and inclinations and purposes. Bring them all into close touch with Him. Let there be no voice in your hearts till you know God’s will; and then with a leap let your hearts be eager to do it. Keep yourselves out of the babble of the world’s voices; and be accustomed to go by yourselves and let God speak. Do promptly, precisely, perfectly, all that you know He has said. That is the way to sharpen your ears for the more delicate intonations of His voice, and the closer manifestations of His will.

III. THE SOLEMN MOTIVES BY WHICH THIS SLEEPLESS VIGILANCE IS ENFORCED. “If they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth”--or,

perhaps, “who on earth refused Him that spake”--“much more shall not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.” The clearness of the voice is the measure of the penalty of non-attention to it. The voice that spoke on earth had earthly penalties as the consequence of disobedience. The voice that speaks from heaven, by reason of its loftier majesty, and of the clearer utterances which are granted to us thereby, necessarily involves more severe and fatal issues from negligence to it. Mark how the words deepen and darken in their significance in the latter portion. The man that stops his ears will very soon turn his back and be in flight, so far as he can, from the voice. Do not tamper with God’s utterances. If you do, you have begun a course that ends in alienation from Him. Then mark, again, the evils which fell upon these people who turned away from Him that speaketh on earth where their long wandering in the wilderness, and their exclusion from the Land of Promise, and final deaths in the desert, where their bleaching bones lay white in the sunshine. And if you and I, by continuous and increasing deafness to our Father’s voice, have turned away from Him, then all that assemblage of flashing glories and majestic persons, and of reconciling blood to which we come by faith, will melt away, “and leave not a wrack behind.” We shall be like men who in a dream have thought themselves in a king’s palace, surrounded by beauty and treasures, and have awakened with a start and a shiver to find themselves alone in the desert. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)Unheeded warnings:

As he (Caesar) crossed the hall his statue fell, and shivered on the stones. Some servants, perhaps, had heard whispers, and wished to warn him. As he still passed on a stranger thrust a scroll into his hand, and begged him to read it on the spot. It contained a list of the conspirators, with a clever account of the plot. He supposed it to be a petition, and placed it carelessly among his other papers. The fate of the empire hung upon a thread, but the thread was not broken. (A. S. Froude.)Fear due to authority:

Julius Caesar once said to one who appeared to treat his words with indifference: “Know, young man, he who says these things is able to do them.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)The word has not done with us:

We seem to have done with the word as it has passed through our ears; but the word, be it remembered, will never have done with us, till it has judged us at the last day. (Judge Hale.)

“Where are his ears?”A nobleman, skilled in music, who had often observed the Hon. and Rev. Mr.

Cadogan’s inattention to his performance, said to him one day, “Come, I am determined to make you feel the force of music; pay particular attention to this piece.” It was accordingly played. “Well, what do you say now?” “Why, just what I said before.” “What! can you hear this and not be charmed? Well, I am quite surprised at your insensibility. Where are your ears? … Bear with me, my lord,” replied Mr. Cadogan, “since I, too, have had my surprise. I have often, from the pulpit, set before you the most striking and affecting truths; I have sounded notes that might have raised the dead; I have said, ‘Surely he will feel now,’ but you never seemed to be charmed with my music, though infinitely more interesting than yours. I, too, have been ready to say, with astonishment, ‘Where are his ears?’”

Yet once moreYet once more:

The expression implies an approaching change. Whenever we speak of doing a thing once more, of visiting a place once more, of seeing a person once more, we imply that there is about to be, after that one act, a cessation, removal, separation, the thought of which is already casting its shadow over it and us. It is an old remark, but none the less true, that even things which we have little prized may awaken in the mind a tender feeling when they are viewed as for the last time, as what we shall never see or never do again. A man may become so habituated to a desert island or to a prisoncell, as to shed tears in quitting the one for his country or the other for freedom. And certainly the dullest home, the most monotonous occupation, the most uncongenial and unattractive circle, may easily be invested with an interest not its own, an interest which never belonged to it while it was regarded as permanent, the moment we feel that our hold upon it is shaken, that we are going forth from it to another abode, or in quest of another abode, which is as yet to us but an unrealised idea. Whenever we use the term “ once more,” in the sense here intended, let us remember, that it signifies “ the removing of the things that are shaken,” of things that are capable and in the process of shaking, “as of things that are made.” When God Himself said, in the passage quoted, “Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven,” if was implied that the convulsion of nature, as it was the last, so also was the prelude to an actual removal and displacement of the framework of nature itself, in preparation for the introduction of that which should be absolutely

indestructible. Every change, from the very greatest of all to the very least, from that which convulses empires to that which agitates a little world like ours, is the removing of something made, of some thing or some person that is temporal and transitory, with a view to the greater prominence, perhaps the restoration to notice, of things or of persons immutable and eternal. What, then, are some of these things which cannot be shaken?

1. I might bid you to think of this school which we all so much love, and to remember that through centuries of changes and fluctuations it has already stood its ground, and that it is now one of those institutions of our country which possess in themselves, by God’s blessing, an element of vitality and of permanence.

2. I will bid you, in the second place, to contrast with those human agencies which are necessarily so transitory in a place like this, and even with the institution itself in which they are carried on, those individual results of our work which we express by the comprehensive term of a human character; that mind, that heart, those habits, that life, which are the ultimate result, in each particular case, of education considered as a complete whole.

3. To speak of the formation of character, just and true though the words be, has a somewhat chilling sound. But when we go on to the verse following the text, and read there of “ a kingdom which cannot be moved,” and hear of our receiving it, and find ourselves charged to “have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably,” as though that also were by His gift in our own power; when we are thus brought, as it were, into His living presence, and made to view all things as coming to us from Him, and being ours already in Him; then whose heart does not burn within him; who does not then feel that there is, in deed and in truth, a rock higher than lie on which his feet may, if he will, be securely set, and that, if only we can reach that place of safety, no change can ever come amiss to us, no change can ever touch us, us ourselves, though it may make strange havoc of every earthly shelter which we had provided for ourselves or for a time rested under and trusted in? (Dealt Vaughan.)

I shake not the earth only, but also heavenThe gospel as a power:

I. As A REVOLUTIONARY POWER. Falsehood, evil, corruption--these, wherever they exist, in hearts, governments, commerce, literature, science, or art--Christianity has shaken and will shake.

II. As A REIGNING POWER. It is a “kingdom.” 1. He that does not receive it as a reigning power, does not receive it at all. 2. He that does not receive it as a reigning power, is exposed to the fate of a

rebel against heaven. III. As A PERMANENT POWER. “A kingdom which cannot be moved.”

1. Its elements are immutable. Love and truth. 2. Its fitness is eternal. Man through all the ages will never outgrow it, never

cease to want it, never be able to get on without it. IV. As A PRACTICAL POWER.

1. The mode of acceptable service. “Reverence and godly fear.” 2. The qualification for acceptable service. “Let us have graces,” i.e.,

thankfully realise the high blessings conferred on us, and with devout gratitude engage in the work.

3. The motive of acceptable service. “Our God is a consuming fire” Deuteronomy 4:24). The God who rolled thunder and flashed light-nings on Sinai has not changed, His antagonism to sin is as great as ever. (Homilist.)

The shaking and the kingdomI. There are two shakings here referred to by the apostle; the first is that of

Sinai, which is already past, the second is that at the Lord’s coming, which is still future. Of this STILL FUTURE SHAKING he affirms three things.

1. It is a final shaking. It is but “once more,” and then all creation is at rest for ever. It is but “once more” that the stormy vengeance of Jehovah is to be let loose upon the earth to work havoc there. That last tempest is even now drawing together its clouds of darkness from every region, and mustering its strength for the terrible outburst--an outburst terrible indeed, but yet the last!

2. It is a more extensive shaking than any heretofore. “I shake not the earth only but also heaven.” The heaven here spoken of is not the “third heaven,” which is the peculiar dwelling place of God and the shrine of His glory; but the visible heavens above us--the same as those of which we read, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This universal shaking is that which Jesus Himself predicted (Matthew 24:29). It is also that of which the prophet Isaiah (chap. 24.), has given at length so dark a picture. Very fearful will these convulsions be. Above, beneath,

around; earth, air, and sea shall be all one dark, wide circle of infinite desolation and terror. Careless sinner! What shall then become of thee?

3. It is a shaking followed by a glorious issue. It is not for the annihilation of this material fabric, nor is it for reducing all things to their primitive chaos. It is for a very different end. That end is twofold. There is first “the removing of those things which are shaken as of things which are made,” that is, things of perishable workmanship. Then there is the consolidating of what resists and survives this shaking into an immovable creation. The foreground is dark, but the scene beyond it is all glad and bright. The commotions in immediate prospect of which we are already beginning to descry the forerunners, are apt to depress and sadden; but all beyond that is so stable, so unchanging, and spreads itself out before us in such refulgent, holy beauty, that we can overleap the dreary interval and stay our hearts as well as refresh our eyes with the glory to be revealed when the skirts of the last cloud shall be seen passing off in the distance, and the echo of the last thunder heard remotely upon the joyful hills.

II. The apostle having thus foretold the convulsions of the last days, and alluded to the “times of the restitution of all things,” proceeds to show THE EFFECT WHICH THESE THINGS SHOULD HAVE UPON BELIEVERS, and in what a solemn attitude it places them. This is the object of what follows, which, from the use of the word “wherefore,” is obviously an inference from his preceding statements.

1. The kingdom. It is “a kingdom which cannot be moved.” All present things are to be shaken, and out of these is to come the kingdom that cannot be moved--a kingdom unchangeable and eternal. Sin, we know, has loosened everything, transforming a stable world into a decaying, crumbling ruin. In order that stability may be restored, all things must be shaken, and after these shakings comes this immovable kingdom. There is no kingdom like this among all that has ever been. Everything about it is incorruptible, as well as undefiled. Its territory, its subjects, its laws, its throne, its sceptre, its sovereign, are all everlasting! Nothing can shake it. No war, no enemy, can disturb its peace. No storm, no earthquake, can assail it. No internal weakness or decay can dismember or dissolve it. The day of its duration shall be the eternal Sabbath--the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

2. The kings. Who are they? “We,” says the apostle--that is, not “we apostles,” but “we saints.” As believers, we have received a kingdom, being made kings and priests unto God; being made “ heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.” Angels are but “ ministering spirits”: we are kings--partakers with Christ Himself of His crown and throne! Behold whatmanner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us! What a holy life should then be ours! Surely we may be expected to keep in mind our coming glory, and to walk worthy of such a calling, and of such a kingdom!

3. Our present position and employment. “Let us serve God.” Our whole life is to be one of service: not merely certain portions of our life, but our entire life from the moment that we believe. It is the life of men redeemed to God, and who have therefore become His property. Each saint is a priest unto God as well as a king. And as Jehovah’s priesthood, we serve in the true sanctuary which the Lord pitched and not man. Ours is a consecrated life, and therefore a continual service, the service of priests. We are sprinkled with blood set apart for God, and our whole life is to be one of priestly service. With our holy garments upon us, our censers in our hands, and standing under the shadow of the glory, how can we give way to levity, or wickedness, or indolence in circumstances so unutterably solemn and overawing. Oh! what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness!

4. In what manner is this service to be performed? 5. How are we to maintain this service? By holding fast grace, says the

apostle. When that free love of God entered our souls, it brought with it liberty and gladness and light. It dispelled all our darkness, it removed all our sorrow, it struck off every fetter, and blessed us with the liberty of

God’s beloved Son. And it is in this same love that we are to abide to the end. We are to beware of losing sight of it, or letting it go.

6. Our God is a consuming fire. This evidently comes in as an additional reason to the preceding. And a most weighty and solemn one it is. The fire, indeed, has not consumed us, but still it is consuming. The God with whom we have to do is a God who has saved us, yet still this very God whom we call ours is a consuming fire. Should we not, then, serve Him with reverence and godly fear? (H. Bonar.)

The shaking of Sinai and Calvary:

That voice of Sinai was a shaking of earthly things. How were nations dispossessed, how were thrones tumbled into the dust, how was the course of human history and human life changed or directed by that shaking of Sinai! And so with the shaking voice of Calvary! Earthly things were moved, and are still moved, by the power of that voice Divine. Not a home to-day in all our land, not a single relationship in life, no duty of the ruler, no obligation of the subject or the citizen, but is bent and swayed and governed from Golgotha’s hill. But heavenly things are shaken by the voice which cried on Calvary. Some have understood, by the term “heaven” as here used, those high states of human faith and worship, not only in the Jewish economy but in the idolatries of the world, which were as “heaven” to the men who received them; and these, the “It is finished” of our Lord has utterly overthrown. Is it a mere play of imagination, if we suppose that the voice which shook the heavens, was indeed heard by the inhabitants of that celestial world, and arrested the very worship of the skies, and startled angels from their lofty stations, to look with absorbed gaze upon the wonders of that sacrifice? Furthermore, may we not reverently suggest that the voice of victory on the completion of redeeming work, wrought even upon the heart of the Infinite One Himself? At least, the issue was a Divine acceptance, the change of threatening judgment into saving mercy. There was shaking at Sinai--shaking of old temporal and earthly relations, of old human and profane habits, and in their place the appointment of things seen in the heavenly, commanded by God, “made” indeed by men, but made “after the fashion given on the Mount.” But now, the voice from heaven hath shaken both earth and heaven. Once again, and far more surely and destructively, are the earthly things shaken, and there topple down all secularities and temporalities and mere passing phenomena of human thought and law of man’s mere worldly duty and faith. But with these also pass the heavenly things that Sinai established. The rules of life, the precepts of morality, the very commandments received as mere external ordinances, the gorgeous ritual of priest and sacrifice of temples, offering of chant and incense, of blood and altar--all these “things made” are shaken, and being shaken, show their passing temporal character as they quickly vanish and disappear. But what remains to us? what are the things that not even the voice from heaven can shake, that not even does the voice desire to shake, but only to establish?

1. Law remains, grand, inviolable, Divine. A law may have vanished, the law may have grown effete and dead, but law is now personal and incarnate, and dwells for ever serene, benign, almighty in the Son of Man, who is

raised into the glory of the Godhead, and who sways, with the power of the Father, alike the hosts of heaven and the inhabiters of the earth.

2. Love remains. Love is the form that dwells in heaven, love is dominion and the rule of God in Jesus Christ His Son.

3. And law and love combine, and in their union salvation remains. All the preparations and the promises, all the weary wanderings of human life, God-led or man-directed, all the times and dispensations, all the aims and hopes and despairs and sins of men, these have all ended now, and there is naught but salvation free and full and certain and eternal, for all who will believe--salvation for the worst--salvation that cannot fail, for it stands assured upon the foundation of the sovereign God, the suffering Son, the ever-gracious Spirit. And so abides for ever the kingdom of our God. Human weakness shall not sap its strength, and Satan’s malice and the wildest assault of hell shall never overthrow its glory. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)

The shakings of JehovahThese Hebrew Christians were living in the midst of a great shaking. It was a

time of almost universal trial. God was shaking not earth only, but also heaven. The Jewish tenure of Palestine was being shaken by the Romans, who claimed it as their conquest. The interpretation given to the Word of God by the Rabbis was being shaken by the fresh light introduced through the words and life and death of Jesus. The supremacy of the temple and its ritual was being shaken by those who taught that the true temple was the Christian Church, and that all the Levitical sacrifices had been realised in Christ. The observance of the Sabbath was being shaken by those who wished to substitute for it the first day of the week. In such a time we are living now. Everything is being shaken and tested. But there is a Divine purpose in it all, that His eternal truth may stand out more clearly, when all human traditions have fallen away, unable to resist the energy of the shock.

I. THEOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ARE BEING SHAKEN. There was a time when men received their theological beliefs from their teachers, their parents, or their Church, without a word of question or controversy. It is not so now; the air is filled with questionings. Men are putting into the crucible every doctrine which our forefathers held dear. In these terrible shakings, not one jot or tittle of God’s Word shall perish, not one grain of truth shall fall to the ground, not one stone in the fortress shall be dislodged. But they are permitted to come, partly to test the chaff and wheat as a winnowing fan, but chiefly that all which is transient may

pass away, whilst the simple truth of God becomes more apparent, and shines forth unhidden by the scaffolding and rubbish with which the builders have obscured its symmetry and beauty. “The things which cannot be shaken shall remain.”

II. ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEMS ARE BEING SHAKEN. Teachers of religion are challenged to show reason for their assuming their office, or of claiming special prerogatives. Methods of work are being weighed in the balances, missionary plans trenchantly criticised, religious services metamorphosed. Change is threatening the most time-honoured customs, and all this is very distressing to those who have confused the essence with the form, the jewel with the casket, the spirit with the temple in which it dwells. But let us not fear. All this is being permitted for the wisest ends. There is a great deal of wood, hay, and stubble in all our structures which needs to be burnt up, but not an ounce of gold or silver will ever be destroyed.

III. OUR CHARACTERS AND LIVES ARE CONSTANTLY BEING SHAKEN. What a shake that sermon gave us, which showed that all our righteousness, on which we counted so fondly, were but withered leaves! What a shake was that commercial disaster, which swept away in one blow the savings and credit of years, that were engrossing the heart, and left us only what we had of spiritual worth! What a shake was that temptation, which showed that our fancied sinlessness was an empty dream, and that we were as sensitive to temptation as those over whom we had been vaunting ourselves. What has been the net result of all these shakings? Has a hair of our heads perished? The old man has perished, but the inward man has been daily renewed. The more the marble has wasted, the more the statue has grown. As the wooden centres have been knocked down, the solid masonry has stood out with growing completeness. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)A lesson from the great panic

It is a most popular error that the world stands still, and is fixed and immovable. This has been scouted as an astronomical theory, but as a matter of practical principle it still reigns in men’s minds. Galileo said, “No, the world is not a fixed body, it moves”; Peter had long before declared that all these things should be dissolved; at last men believed the astronomer, but they still doubt the apostle, or at least forget his doctrine. “This is the substance,” cries the miser, as he clutches his bags of gold; “heaven and hell are myths to me.” “This is the main chance,” whispers the merchant, as he pushes vigorously his commercial

speculations; “as for spiritual things they are for mere dreamers and sentimentalists. Cash is the true treasure.” Ah, you base your statements upon a foundation of falsehood. This world is as certainly a mere revolving ball as to human life as it is astronomically; and hopes founded thereon will as surely come to nought as will card houses in a storm. Here we have no abiding city, and it is in vain to attempt to build one. Every now and then, in order to enforce this distasteful truth upon us, the God of providence gives the world, in some way or other, a warning shake. The Lord has only to lay one finger upon the world, and mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, while the waters of the ocean roar and are troubled until the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

I. The original draft of the statement refers to THE OLD JEWISH DISPENSATION. Why was it that it could be shaken?

1. One reason was that it had so much to do with materialism. It needed an altar of earth or stone, and such altars the hand of the spoiler can overturn; it required a bullock that hath horns and hoofs, and such sacrifices the plague may slay; it demanded a priest of the house of Aaron, and a race of men may be cut off from the families of the nations; it needed a tabernacle or a temple, and buildings made with hands are readily demolished; hence it could be shaken. These were but things which are made, and they have been shaken and removed; but the things which cannot be shaken still remain; our spiritual altar still endures, our great High Priest still lives, our house not made with hands is still eternal in the heavens.

2. The Jewish religion could be shaken because it could be combated by material forces. Antiochus could profane its altars, Titus could burn its temple, and cast down the walls of the sacred city; but no invader can pollute the heavenly altar of our spiritual faith by brute force, or destroy the celestial bulwarks of our hope by fire and sword. Material forces are not available in our warfare, for we wrestle not with flesh and blood. The tyrant may burn our martyrs and cast our confessors into prison, but the pure truth of Jesus is neither consumed by fire nor bound with chains; it hath within itself essential immortality and liberty.

3. Moreover, the Mosaic economy passed away because it could be affected by time. But see the doctrine of the Cross of Christ! No time affects it. The message of salvation by grace is as fresh to-day as when Peter preached

it at Pentecost. The great command, “Believe and live,” has as much life-giving power about it as when it was first applied by the Holy Ghost.

II. ALL THAT IS TRUE IN OUR PROFESSED CREEDS AND STANDARDS WILL STAND WHEN MERE OPINIONS ARE SHAKEN.

III. THE REAL IN OUTWARD PROFESSION STANDS, NOTWITHSTANDING TIMES OF SHAKING. I do not think times of storm to a Church are in the long run to be regretted; a calm is much more dangerous. The plague bearing miasma settles and festers in the vale till the atmosphere becomes deadly, even to the casual passenger; but the storm fiend, as men call him, leaps from the mountains into the sunny glades of the valley; with terrific vigour hurls down the habitations of men, and tears up the trees by the roots; but meanwhile all is superabundantly compensated by the effectual purging which the atmosphere receives. Men breathe more freely, and heaven smiles more serenely now that the heaviness of the death-damp is gone, and the poisonous vapour clings no longer to the river’s bank and the valley’s side.

IV. We will further apply the principle to our OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. LET me mention a few methods of soul-shaking.

1. Affliction is one of them. The man thought that he had resigned everything to God--death came and took away his child; where was his resignation then? Tribulations, losses, crosses, sicknesses, and bereavements, are very stern trials, and the things within us which may be shaken will be shaken by them; but if we can bear them well and trustingly, and yet praise God for all, we have evidence of possessing gracious qualities which cannot be shaken, and therefore will remain.

2. What a shake temptation gives us! Why, we shall then know whether our grace is the grace of God or the grace of man; we shall now see whether we have the faith of God’s elect or not. The faith of God’s elect can write “Invicta” upon its escutcheon; it is unconquered and unconquerable. There is a time of shaking coming which none of us shall be able to avoid.

3. If we should live without affliction and without temptation, which I think will be impossible, yet we cannot enter into the promised land without passing through the river of death, unless the Lord shall come. What a testing-time will the death-hour be!

V. I must now bring before you ALL THAT YOU HAVE IN POSSESSION. The things which can be shaken will be removed, but things that cannot be shaken will remain. We have many things in our possession at the present moment

which can be shaken, and it ill-becomes a Christian man to set much store by them. Yet some of us have certain “ things which cannot be shaken,” and I invite you to read over the catalogue of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain.

1. In the first place, whatever your losses may have been, you enjoy present salvation.

2. In the next place, you are a child of God to-day. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob yon of that.

3. You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. HE who is God and anon loves you with all the strength of His affectionate nature. Now, nothing can rob you of that.

4. You have another thing, namely this truth, that whatever may happen to you you have God’s faithful promise which holds true that all things shall work for your good. Do you believe this? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Things passing and things permanent:The giving of the law shook the earth, the giving of the gospel is to shake earth

and heaven. The concussion begins when Christ comes; it is going on now; and it will continue till the world receives its last shock and falls asunder. This is not a very common view of the gospel history, but it has its side of truth. The gospel cannot build up and make strong without shaking down. The things that are shaken are “things that are made.” They are created things, and therefore they can be and must be changed. But the things that are not made cannot be shaken. They are things that belong to God’s own nature, His truth and righteousness and love, which are unassailable and eternal, and give eternal power and life wherever they enter and become part of a creature. It is a very great thing for us to feel assured of this in the midst of the perpetual breaking down of everything around us.

I. IN ILLUSTRATING THE LAW, WE, MAY BEGIN WITH THE MORE GENERAL AND COME TO THE PERSONAL.

1. The Jewish dispensation was shaken, but the great realities enclosed in it remain. The New Testament Church emerges like a spirit clothed in a new and ethereal body fitted for a greater time.

2. The forms of human society are shaken, but the principles that regulate if remain. Every chaos has its harmonising voice, “Let there be light”; every flood its ark and its rainbow. Amid the tumults of nations and the guessing

plans of politicians, a Christian man need never lose hope, for he has his foot on a kingdom that cannot be moved; and the communities of this world are being shaken and broken that they may be built up again, with more in them of that kingdom which is truth and righteousness, and which at last shall be peace.

3. Outward systems of religion are shaken, but the great truths of the Church of Christ remain. By outward systems of religion we mean the organisations that men form, with a particular human name and locality and administration; by the Church of Christ we mean the spiritual children of God, called together by His grace out of every country, and built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone. The great wants of man’s soul cannot be changed any more than the necessities of his physical nature, and the great truths of the Bible that satisfy them can no more be shaken than the ordinances of heaven that furnish man with bread and light and life.

4. The temporal circumstances of man are shaken, but the great possessions of the soul remain. There are few who pass through life without experiencing many changes in it. All our possessions are in things of earth, and we hold them by a clay-tenure. Perhaps the saddest change of all is that which takes place in our feelings. How different the dreams of the opening of life from the realisations of its close! What broken hopes, what frustrated aims, what a poor handful of ears for the rich sheaves we saw before us! So God shakes our lives till all seems gone, things of possession and things of promise. And yet, the while, the soul may have within its grasp things that cannot be touched, that youthful expectations once thought little of, but that now grow into bright and great realities. It may have faith rising to God and laying hold of the treasure that nothing can endanger or diminish. It may have hope going down like an anchor and keeping the heart stable in every storm. It may have love within and around, dwelling on the things of God and giving, in communion with Him, a peace in trouble that is above all earthly good. If these have become part of the soul they may be clouded, but they are never lost. When we lose hold of them Christ holds them fast for us, and brings them out like stars over drifting sky-rack, and brightens them as night deepens.

5. The material frame of man is shaken, but the immortal spirit remains. Where the Divine life enters, it brings with it not only the promise but the

pledge and foretaste of the immortal life. The light of faith already spoken of, shining when all else that looks out at the windows is darkened, is one of its foretokens. Augustine said of his mother, Monies, that the crevices of the falling tabernacle only let the celestial light shine in more clearly. “The soul’s dark cottage shattered and decayedLets in new light through chinks that time has made.”

And when death gives the last shock to the frame the work is completed. The soul is that light in Gideon’s pitcher which shines out most clearly when the earthen vessel that held it is broken.

6. Last of all, we observe, as an illustration of this law, that the whole system of nature is shaken, but the new creation remains. That which we can trace in all past eras, rising still to a better and brighter, must reach its brightest and its best if there be truth in earth or heaven. The passing things in the universe must lead to something permanent, for time no more than space can have a sea without a shore. That new material creation shall be suited to the nature of man’s glorified, material frame, as that frame is suited to his perfected spirit. It must be free from all the elements of disorder and decay that press upon us here--a soil that never opens for a grave, a sky that never darkens with a cloud; to describe which God’s word fails, because it can only use figures drawn from things that are passing, and speak to finite minds enclosed within these limits. I do not know if there is anything that can give us a higher idea of that great end than this, that it is the end--the close to which all the events and processes around us are conducting--the one permanent, imperishable result of the history of the universe.

II. WE NOW COME TO INDICATE SOME OF THE BENEFITS THAT RESULT FROM THIS LAW. Could not God, it may be asked, have made a permanent world at first, without requiring us to pass through this process of change deepening so often to ruin? After all, this may be asking why God has seen fit to make this world under the condition of time, for, wherever time enters, change, as far as we can see, must accompany it. It may be that finite minds can learn, or at least begin their learning, only under some such forms of change as we see around us--processes of birth and growth and death and revival, taking place under our eyes, arresting our attention, and stimulating our study. It is a book where God is turning the pages to every generation, and giving it something new, an advancing development that bids men look back and forward. The world as

we here see it is a becoming--a process where constant change is imprinted on all. It has seemed fit toGod’s wisdom to put us through such a course of learning, where change should be so prominent, and yet the permanent never far off to those who will feel after it till they find it; and if we could understand all things we might see that the proportion in which the two are mingled is best suited to our present condition. We come, however, to something more practical when we remark that this is a world into which moral disorder has entered, and that the painful changes that touch us are the consequence of it--the consequence of it, and yet an aid to the cure of it. Without sin there might still have been mutation, but it would have wanted the sting and the shadow. We have lost through our fall the true perception of spiritual and eternal realities, and we must be made to see them through painful contrasts. It is by this process, too, that we not only see the greatness of these permanent things, but learn to cleave to them as our portion. This at least is the purpose, and if God’s Spirit stirs the heart when His providence shakes the outward life this will be the result. Still further, things that are shaken preserve those things that are to remain until their suitable time of manifestation. God gives us earthly comforts and hopes, till He gives something better in their stead. A young Christian could not be reconciled to many things which the more advanced cheerfully accept. In our present state we could not bear the view of another world, and the veil is kept between till our souls are attempered. Meanwhile, the seed of the incorruptable is here now--the seed of the everlasting inheritance in these frail hearts, of the glorious body in these dying frames, of the new creation in the world we look on. The things that perish encase them, as winter’s snow covers the seed, as the husk the flower. When all is ready, the sun will come and the snow will melt, the husk will fall, the flower will blossom to the summer day, and we shall see that the things which perish have also their place in the plan of God. They are the veil between grace and glory, very needful, and only to be done away when that which is perfect shall have come, and we are ready to take possession of it. (J. Ker, D. D.)

A kingdom which cannot be movedThe immovableness of the gospel dispensation

The gospel dispensation is the “kingdom which cannot be moved.” It is described as a “kingdom which cannot be moved,” because it is the complete development of God’s design towards this earth, and not a mere herald of a fuller manifestation. And when St. Paul appeals to the reception of an immovable kingdom as furnishing a motive to earnestness in the service of God, he is to be

considered as arguing from the fixedness of the present dispensation to the duty of a reverential and filial obedience. The object, therefore, of our discourse must be to display the fairness of such reasoning; in other words, to explain how the fact that the kingdom that cannot be moved furnishes a motive to the serving God “acceptably with reverence and with godly fear.”

I. First, then, upon general grounds. WHY SHOULD THE FIXEDNESS OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION URGE US TO DILIGENCE IN THE SERVICE OF GOD? Suppose we take the opposite supposition, and imagine that there had been none of this fixedness in the gospel of Christ. Let us conceive ourselves placed under an imperfect and temporal economy, and see what difference would be made in our moral position. If you could throw an air of doubtfulness around the completion of revelation--if rather you could prove that there was still a portion of God’s will to be made known; that we are not in possession of all that knowledge in respect of redemption which shall be communicated to man on this side of eternity, then immediately there would be engendered a feeling of restlessness and uncertainty; our minds, in place of setting themselves earnestly to the study of what was given, would waste themselves in conjecturing what was withheld. It is evident that under the Jewish dispensation there was a vast deal of this moral dissatisfaction. An absolute sickness of heart appears to have been felt by the most upright and pious at the long delay of a fuller revelation. There is just the difference between our condition under an immovable kingdom, and the condition of those who were under the movable kingdom, that there would be between a man who should be bidden to do something in the dark, and that of another man who should be told to do the same thing in the daylight. We will not say that the darkness is an apology for remissness, but that the sunshine takes away a great show of excuse. Receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, there are not brought to bear on us the disturbing forces which acted within the moral orbit of the Jew. We look straightway to Christ as a sacrifice, and are not set to behold Him in bulls and goats led up to the brazen altar. We can mark the Mediator, entering by His own blood into the holy of holies, and are not left to search out His intercession in that of a priest who, compassed with infirmity, needed for himself what he presented for others. We can go at once to “the fountain open for sin and uncleanness,” and are not required to learn the methods of spiritual purification from the multiplied processes of ceremonial. We have been made acquainted with the abolition of death, of life and immortality being brought vividly to light, and we are not reduced to a vague hope or dim

conjecture of the resurrection of matter and of its fresh inhabitation by spirit. But in these and numerous like points of distinction lies the difference between a kingdom which can be moved and a kingdom which cannot be moved. That which cannot be moved is the substance, whilst that which can be moved is only the shadow. He, therefore, who is under the immovable, has realities within his grasp, whilst he who is under the movable has only figure and parable; and just in proportion that the knowing with precision what is to be hoped and what feared will make a man more decisive in action than the being left in doubt and uncertainty--in that same proportion ought energy under the immovable dispensation to carry it over energy under the movable dispensation. The statutes of this kingdom are not written in hieroglyphics; the laws of its citizenship are not propounded in enigmas; everything wears the aspect of a final and complete revelation; the figurative has given place to the literal: prophecy has sunk into performance; who, therefore, will refuse to acknowledge that there is laid upon those who receive the immovable kingdom a mighty weight of responsibleness over and above that which rested on the recipients of the movable? And if the fixedness of the dispensation thus enhance the responsibleness of its subjects, we put beyond controversy that the fixedness should furnish motives to the serving God “ acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

II. Now we propose, in the second place, to make good the same truth on the particular ground which the apostle lays down. St. Paul argues the duty of obedience from the fixedness of the dispensation; BUT THEN HE SUBJOINS AS HIS CONCLUDING ARGUMENT--“For our God is a consuming fire.” Let us see how the several arguments are associated. We cannot be wrong in arguing that until the gospel was published--until, that is, the spiritual kingdom was finally settled on an immovable basis, there were points on which God’s will was not clearly ascertained, and men might easily have formed incorrect suppositions, forasmuch as they proceeded on an imperfect knowledge. Informed of God’s gracious design of providing pardon for the guilty, but not informed of the details of the arrangement, it might well come to pass that they would indulge in expectations which a fuller intelligence would have caused them to reject. They knew that God was “a consuming fire”; but they derived this knowledge from that tremendous outbreak of thunder and flame which accompanied the delivery of the law. But you will, we think, allow that if the Israelites knew God as “a consuming fire,” because so revealed on Mount Sinai, and if they did not as yet

know thoroughly the character under which lie would reveal Himself on Mount Zion, it might be a matter of question with them whether the mildness of the one revelation would not so temper the fierceness of the other, that “a consuming fire” might no longer be a just description of God. They lived under a movable dispensation; the immovable which was to follow, came charged with discoveries of God’s purposes of lovingkindness; might there not consequently have been somewhat of hesitation on their minds as to whether the tire which blazed awfully before mercy was allowed to shine out in its brightness, would be equally devouring when the day of free pardon had dawned on the creation? But so soon as the kingdom became “a kingdom which cannot be moved”; the possible union of characters--the characters of the punishing God and the pardoning God--was established beyond the reach of a question or a doubt. We cannot, unless we hoodwink our understandings, and take pains to be the victims of a lie, flatter ourselves that judgment when brought out into action will be less fiery and less tremendous than when graven on the statute book. Ours is the immovable kingdom, and the very process by which this kingdom was set up and wrought into steadfastness witnesses with a testimony the most thrilling, that it was a law with God, the least swerving from which would be the shaking of His own throne, that sin must be punished before the sinner can be pardoned. It was on Zion ten thousandfold more than on Sinai, that the Almighty proved Himself “a consuming fire.” When the eternal Son in the might of the coalition of Deity and humanity went up the mountain side and laid Himself down on the altar, the substitute of a lost world, and there blazed forth the fires of justice to consume the sacrifice. Oh t then, far beyond the demonstration of Sinai, wrapped in flame and smoke, was there given a proof to all intelligent creation, that the emblem of God, when He deals with the guilty, shall be ever that of “a consuming fire.” Thus it was in giving fixedness to the dispensation that God manifested Himself as “a consuming fire.” The fact that the kingdom cannot be moved is an irresistible proof that the fire cannot be extinguished. Thus there is a connection, the very closest between the fixedness of the gospel dispensation and that character of God which sets Him forth as the devourer of the impenitent; and hence we gather that the argument to the “serving God acceptably,” which is drawn from His being “a consuming fire,” is but a particular case of the general argument derived from our “receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved.” Therefore, all our former reasons on the general argument must be applicable to the particular. Futurity comes charged with no softenings away of God’s wrath against sin; this is the fact that should

nerve to obedience. We ought, perhaps, to say a word on the somewhat singular expression--“Let us have grace.” It can only refer to our seeking grace, to our improving grace. Without grace is it impossible that we should serve God acceptably, for man himself is void of all capacity for performing the will of his Maker; hence the being admonished that we may have grace to serve God acceptably is the same thing as being admonished that we set not to the work in any strength of our own, but that we go to God for assistance in order that we may honour God by obedience. And we may further observe that the service here demanded at our hands is of a nature which marks the awfulness of God. There is to be nothing of familiarity, there is to be nothing of forgetfulness of the unmeasured distance which, even when brought nigh by the blood of His own Son, separates between God and ourselves. Therefore we are to serve “with reverence and godly fear”; and though undoubtedly the fear which a Christian entertains towards God will be filial fear rather than slavish, the fear of a son who loves rather than that of a servant who dreads, yet it is certain that in our text an apprehension of wrath is supposed to be an element of godly fear. “Such would have been my lot,” will the Christian say, when musing on the fate of the impenitent, “had not free grace interposed, and God of His rich lovingkindness brought me up from destruction.” Carry away with you, then, this truth--the truth that peculiar interest in God is no encouragement to the throwing aside the most awful fear of God. “Our God is a consuming fire.” How rich the summit of privilege when you can say, “O God, Thou art my God! “ And yet when the summit is reached you must still look to the blazing, burning Deity for “our God,” my God, “is a consuming fire.” “At first glance,” says an old prelate, “these two expressions, ‘our God,’ and ‘a consuming fire,’ seem to look strangely at one another, but the Holy Ghost hath excellently tempered them.” He is our God--this corrects that despairing fear which would otherwise seize on us from the consideration of God as “a consuming fire.” But then, He is not only “our God”; He is also “a consuming fire”--this corrects that presumptuous irreverence to which else we might be emboldened by the consideration of our interest in God as “our God.” (H. Melvill, B. D.)The immovable kingdom, or Christianity contrasted with earthquakes

In the case of Palestine, there had been ages of experience in volcanic convulsions before Bible times. Probably the great Mediterranean Sea is a pre-Adamic volcanic crevasse, by which Europe and Africa were separated from each other. Its many volcanoes are still active vents in the vast fissure. The Red

Sea is almost certainly a volcanic crevasse separating Africa from Asia. That crevasse runs up northward from Mount Sinai to Mount Hermon, through the whole length of Palestine. The river Jordan, with its two lakes and the Dead Sea, are in the bottom of that great volcanic crevasse, far below the surface of the Mediterranean. The oldest historical record of an earthquake tells how God knocked a little more of the bottom out of that crevasse, at the south end of the Dead Sea, and let it swallow up the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole vale of Siddim. But “Bela,” the old name of Zoar, meant “convulsions” before Lot fled thither. There are records of earthquakes, and allusions to them, all through the Old Testament, in the Psalms, Prophets, and historical books. The imagery of our text is all taken from that great earthquake with which God accompanied, and sublimely emphasised, His giving of the law on Mount Sinai. That shaking of the literal mountain lies at the base of the figurative and spiritual use which is made of it by the author of this Epistle to the Hebrews. They knew and gloried in the history, and could feel the force of its application when reminded of “a kingdom that could not be shaken.” But for us, that we may understand it, let us consider

I. THE MEANING OF THIS IMMOVABLE KINGDOM: WHAT IS ITS SIGNIFICATION? To this question there are for us two answers.

1. Christianity in contrast with Judaism. A striking contrast here, from the eighteenth verse onward, between Judaism, as represented by Mount Sinai, where it was revealed; and Christianity, represented by Mount Zion, where it was revealed. The one is clad in material terrors, the other in spiritual glories. To approach the one is death, the other life. The one reveals the law against sin, the other salvation from sin. The one shakes the world with an earthquake of wrath against all unrighteousness, the other with the Pentecostal earthquake of joy at the bringing in of everlasting righteousness. The one shakes a temporal mountain, but leaves the ceremonial law as a barrier between the Gentile world and salvation; the other shakes down the old dispensation of types and shadows, but leaves in its place the unshakable and final dispensation of grace, the pure and simple principles of justification, holiness, union with God, and eternal salvation, all through Christ. But this “immovable kingdom” also means

2. Christianity in its wider contrast between all earthly and perishing things, on the one hand, and the spiritual and unperishing things of the soul and

salvation, on the other hand. What a stupendous symbol of the perishableness of all earthly interests is this which the apostle uses as a foil to set off the unperishing durability of the kingdom of Jesus Christ over the souls and destinies of men! Let earthquakes shatter all created things. Let all that earth has to offer, its loves, its hopes, its possessions and ambitions, perish together. The soul that has received by faith the unperishing kingdom of Christ has a possession which not only endures, but saves its possessor with it, and fills his inmost soul with consciousness of eternal riches, eternal strength, and joy. He who has Jesus in his soul knows that be has the last thing, the best thing, the eternal thing. The immovable kingdom is his. No changes of ritual, no translation of priesthood, no civil revolution, no providential catastrophe of earth or time can affect him. He is an heir of God for ever. And now it is in view of our noble heirship to this glorious and immovable kingdom that Paul adds, as a logical conclusion, introduced by the “wherefore.”

II. THE EXHORTATION TO FITNESS FOR THE HEIRSHIP OF SUCH A KINGDOM. “Let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing unto God, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.” There are three points in this exhortation.

1. This heirship demands a corresponding service on our part. We must “offer service well-pleasing unto God.” In the ages of the old feudal kingdoms of Europe, all the smaller or feudatory kingdoms, principalities, dukedoms, earldoms, &c., were held as the direct gift of the sovereign crown, and homage must be rendered and feudal service in arms pledged to the sovereign king by the heirs to the various feudatory principalities, &c., before they could be invested with their inheritances, however great. And so it is with the heirs of the glorious kingdom of Christ.

2. The rendering of such a service requires the abiding grace of God in our souls, as a qualification therefor. “Let us have grace,” said the apostle, “that we may so serve God.” Ah, he knew how much of the deep inward grace of God is necessary for such a service. It is not enough that we know the will of God and theoretically accept it. The Israelites did that in the desert, and yet, at the very foot of Mount Sinai, and then, after all the glorious manifestations of God’s power in the flaming mountain and the quaking earth, they backslid into idolatry then and there, in the very presence of the glory of God. The reason for this was that they had not the

grace of God in their hearts. Their reverence and obedience lasted while the earthquake lasted, but no longer. It was not the “grace,” not even the holy “reverence and awe” of our text. We ought all to say for ourselves, “Let us have grace.” It is for us, and for us all. We may have it if we will seek it. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in us; and what is there which God is so willing to give as the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?

3. A solemn warning against negligence in this matter. “For our God is a consuming fire.” It is not too much for us to serve God “with reverence and awe.” God is the same now as He was at Mount Sinai. He was Jehovah, the Angel of the Covenant, the pre-incarnate Jesus then; who then spake on earth, but now speaks from heaven. All that He then showed of power and majesty is still at His command. In His incarnation storms, diseases, deaths, and devils obeyed Him, and voices from heaven attested His Deity. (G. L. Taylor, D. D.)

Service in the kingdom of GodI. THE DOCTRINE IS THIS: THESE HEBREWS RECEIVED A KINGDOM

WHICH COULD NOT BE MOVED. And it is first to be explained, and the difficulty lies in this phrase of receiving a kingdom. For

1. There is a kingdom. 2. This kingdom cannot be moved. 3. They received it.

II. THE EXHORTATION FOLLOWETH, WHERE THE DUTY IS TO HAVE GRACE TO SERVE GOD.

1. By grace may be meant the doctrine of grace, which is the gospel so called (Titus 2:11).

2. Faith and belief. 3. The profession of this faith. 4. The sanctifying power of the Spirit, which all true believers and professors

have; and this presupposeth all the former, or infolds them. To have this grace is to have this sanctifying power, and to hold it, keep it, exercise it more and more. The end why we must have and hold it is, that we may serve God. This implies that God is the Sovereign in this kingdom, and we are the subjects, and our duty is continually to serve our Lord and King. To serve Him, is not only with all humility to adore His excellent Majesty, but also sincerely, wholly, and absolutely to submit unto His power and obey His laws. This implies

I. THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. The immovable kingdom

1. It is the complement and perfection of all prior dispensations of religion; that to which they were but introductory, and in which they were merged and consummated.

2. Its chief and blessed Administrator, our Lord Jesus, is declared as such to be eternal. He shall always stand in this relation to His people. He shall ever be “Head over all things to the Church.”

3. Another proof that this kingdom cannot be moved is, that it perfectly answers the end of all religion.

II. THE PRACTICAL INFERENCE. “Let us have grace,” says the apostle, taking it for granted that all who earnestly desire and properly seek it, shall obtain. It is most liberally offered and most freely bestowed.

1. This grace is to be obtained in order that we may “serve God.” We are to return to Him from our alienation; to relinquish our guilty rebellion; and to bind ourselves to Him in sincere and ceaseless allegiance. His laws are to be ever obeyed, His glory supremely sought.

2. To those who thus resolve to give up themselves to God, it must be further shown that we are to “ serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.”

The immovable kingdom:It is obvious that anything which can be termed the “kingdom of God” must be

immovable. But we propose to consider rather some of those elements which are not so readily, not so necessarily recognised, and the word “receiving” of our text suggests the direction in which we must seek. It is a word of much force. It is more than “receiving” simply as “taking.” The preposition, which is compounded with the verb, suggests the idea of “by the side”; so that when we thus receive, we receive by the placing of ourselves by the side of, in a certain identification, in a certain intimate blending of ourselves with the thing received. We thus make it our own, it becomes part of our own peculiar property--part of ourselves, we might say. Perhaps the best interpretation of this text may be found in the words of the Lord addressed to Peter, when this disciple had made his famous confession. Christ’s Church was to be built upon that foundation of life and faith which the confession of Peter indicated. Not the truth as an abstract proposition; not the individual as a personal historical item; but the truth apprehended, the truth felt, the truth obeyed in the living man. This is the foundation of the Church.

And this is the acceptance of the kingdom. That this is the fact, needs only a review of history to determine. The essential elements of this kingdom were as truly existent before the coming of Jesus Christ as after. It was necessary that Christ should appear m historic time and form, and therefore lie must have appeared at some time and under some form; and yet all that His work produced, and the dependence of the moral and spiritual life of man upon Hint and His atonement were as real before as after His advent. “Christianity as old as the Creation,” or at least “as old as the Fall,” is a phrase that the Christian is quite prepared to accept, even though it came from a sceptical and destructive quarter. What changed, and passed, and disappeared, are not of the essence of religion. That remained, and the historical Christ, and the Christian Church, and the post-Christian era only illustrate and explain and illuminate the truths which are eternal. And this is the lesson of all the experiences through which the gospel has passed. It has known persecution, but persecution only strengthened the faith, and while it purged away the false and the weak, it but tempered and purified the true. No new element of truth introduced, no other means of acceptance with the Father, no other name given under heaven whereby men shall be guyed, but the one, “Christ Jesus, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” And, as we have said, we shall find the source of this immovableness in the possession which the kingdom takes of our own inner life. We call attention now to these subjective, these human aspects of the gospel. Do men want a religion of humanity? Here is the religion of humanity. Our spirits crave for it, our hearts leap up to it when it comes; our consciences accept it and commend it; the entire nature closes with it as the faith of man; and even the baser being, as it sinks down into its condemnation and its death, echoes back, in the cry of hatred with which it receives it, the truth, the human, the Divine, the eternal, and changeless truth of the religion of Jesus Christ. The first element in what we may call this human aspect of the immovable kingdom that we receive, is the appeal which the gospel makes to man’s moral nature, and the response which is made to it upon that side of its teaching concerning the lost and helpless condition of man. Man’s nature is in revolt; there is strife, and sickness, and a certain death. And these the gospel recognises, and to these it addresses itself, and so remains for ever unchanged, whilst the heart of man is what it is. God builds its foundations, and He lays them in the very depths of the human soul. Another fact of human nature which is recognised in the gospel scheme, and makes for its unchangeableness, is the complete helplessness of man to

extricate himself front the position in which he finds himself. Man is lost; man in his loss is helpless. These are the two profound facts of human nature. Christianity fully recognises both of these truths. They may be called the human axioms of the Christian scheme, the first principles of salvation through Jesus Christ. And these abide for ever in the nature of man. The kingdom of grace includes a further truth--viz., that of a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Man attains his glory in personality. It is the assertion of his personality which is the condition of the catastrophe that has overcome him. It is the sense of personality which reveals continuously and with horrid stings of upbraiding conscience and alarming sanctions of threatening law the miserable condition of helplessness in which he lies; and so man everywhere turns to the thought of a person, to any pretension of a person, to any supposed fact of a person, to the personal life, the personal work, the personal sympathy, for the salvation he requires. Hence the kingdom of salvation is the kingdom of Jesus Christ; the message of mercy is the life of Jesus; the comfort of man is the name of Jesus; the warrant of hope is the promise of Jesus. Jesus is the ceaseless, the changeless gospel of the human heart. And all this, according to the truth of the gospel, is made perpetual and abiding by a power which shall ever dwell in the hearts and lives of men. A Holy Spirit for ever dwells in the Church of God; that Spirit who was the energy of creative power; that Spirit who was the inspiration of the good, and the holy, and the true in every age; that Spirit who is the very life and communion of the Godhead itself. It is this that makes the kingdom immovable. What is genius arrayed against this power of God? What can wit with keenest arms effect against this force? What can the wear and ruin of all human life waste when there is ever this source of power and renewal to revivify and repair? The kingdom of God is immovable; and this you may receive through Jesus Christ our Lord. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)The kingdom that cannot be moved:

One of the Red:Republicans of 1793 was telling a good peasant of La Vendee, “We are going to pull down your churches and your steeples--all that recalls the superstitious of past ages, and all that brings to your mind the idea of God.” “Citizen,” replied the good Vendeean, “pull down the stars then.” (W. Baxendale.)

Let us have graceOur need of Divine grace

1. We need it, not only for reformation and change of character, but also for the preservation of character when good and upright. It must be admitted

that early discipline and long-established habit may do much to mould the heart and the mind; but that these things are enough to keep the character from harm, and to plant around it an invincible protection from sudden and unexpected contingencies of trial, is contradicted by experience and by the past and present history of man in every form and condition of his existence. But look at the case in a religious point of view. I say religious, because that involves the higher purposes of being, the exercise of the nobler powers, and the destinies which reach onward through an endless futurity. When referring to this subject, virtue, in all its various aspects of loveliness and usefulness, is not only to be regarded as virtue simply, but virtue produced, upheld, and protected by a power superhuman. Under a religious influence, any one of the virtues you might name is turned into new and heavenly channels; and while it retains all its natural elements, it becomes changed in the nobleness of its motives, in the grandeur of its purposes, and in the glory of its objects. What can bring about this change but Divine grace?

2. It is obtainable. It is freely given simply upon the condition of being asked for in Sincerity and faith. As the weary traveller can freely partake of the stream of water by his side, though he be penniless, so the man burdened by guilt, without God and without hope in the world--an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, homeless, and without a guide on the broad and desert-wastes of the world--can partake freely of the grace of God, as a Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness.

3. Consider, in the time of any sore trial, what a source of strength and comfort may be found in the Divine grace. At such times we sink under the weight of our own suffering. Overpowered by the affliction, we find no strength within us to bear us up against it. We try according to our means to counteract the suffering; but memory, ever busy, calls up to our minds, in defiance of our earthly resources, a thousand painful associations; and the deep mourning thoughts of the heart linger where the pain arises. In vain we look around us for help--help enough to break down the agony and to crush it. But the grace of God can bring to the wounded and crushed heart a remedy. It, and it only, can blend feeling with precept; bind up in one the soothing power of sympathy with the earnestness of hope; the assurance of faith with the anticipation of rest for evermore. (W. D.Horwood.)

Serve God acceptablyAcceptable service:

Many things are absolutely needful for the acceptance of any service rendered unto God: of these some are not stated in the text, but they are so important that I commence with mentioning them. The first is that the person who attempts to serve God should himself be accepted. The offerer must himself be accepted in the Beloved, or his offering will be tainted by his condition and be inevitably unacceptable. The next essential is that, the act being performed by a person accepted, it should be distinctly done as unto God. Our text speaks of serving God. Alas, much is done which is in itself externally commendable, but it is not acceptable to God, because it is not rendered unto Him, and with a view to His glory. And we must take care that all this is done with faith in Christ Jesus; for it is a law of universal observation in the kingdom of heaven that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” We must bring our offering to Jesus, our great High Priest, and He must present it for us, for it can only be acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. These things being mentioned, I now confine myself to the text itself, which has in it a world of solemn, heart-searching thought with regard to the acceptable service of God.

I. If we are to serve God acceptably, it must be UNDER A SENSE OF OUR IMMEASURABLE OBLIGATION TO HIM. Look, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom” &c. See, whatever service we may render to God, we must begin by being receivers. “We receiving a kingdom.” What a gift to receive! This is a Divine gift; we have received, not a pauper’s pension, but a kingdom--“a kingdom which cannot be moved.” “But,” say you, “we have not received this kingdom yet.”

1. I answer that we have received it in a certain sense; we have received it first in the promise. “I appoint unto you a kingdom as My Father hath appointed unto Me.” “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

2. More than this, we have received it in the principles of it. “The kingdom of God is within you.” As the fairest flower lies packed away within the little shrivelled seed, and wants but time and sun to develop all its beauty, so perfection, glory, immortality and bliss unspeakable lie hidden away within the grace which God hath given unto all His people. “He that believeth in Him hath everlasting life.” The life of heaven is begun within the believer.

3. Moreover, in a measure we have received this kingdom in the power of it. God hath endowed you with power from on high by giving you the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

4. Moreover, you have received much of the provision and protection of that kingdom.

II. Acceptable service must be rendered to God Is THE POWER OF DIVINE GRACE. “Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably.” Note, then, that acceptable service to God is not offered in the power of nature, not even of nature at its best, when we call it good nature and philanthropy; but in the service of God everything must be the fruit of grace. You are to serve the Lord, not in the strength of your own wit or experience, or talent, but in the energy of the new life which God has given you, and in the power of the grace which is continually bestowed upon you moment by moment as you seek it of the Lord.

III. To “serve God acceptably,” WE MUST DO IT WITH REVERENCE. The word, according to Bishop Hopkins, signifies a holy shamefacedness. The angels veil their faces with their wings when they worship the Most High, and we must veil ours with humility. The angels feel their own littleness when they stand before the presence of the dread Supreme. You and I who are much less than angels, and have sinned, should, when we come before God, be covered with blushes. Our heart should be filled with wonder that we are called to this high privilege, though we are so unworthy of it.

IV. The other word is, “with godly fear”; and this suggests that we should serve God IN THE SPIRIT OF HOLY CAREFULNESS. We ought to fear lest we should offend the Lord even while we are serving Him; fear lest the sacrifice should be a blemished one, and so be rejected at the altar; fear lest there should be something about our spirit and temper which would grieve the Lord. He is a jealous God, and must be served with holy carefulness.

V. We must cultivate A PROFOUND SENSE OF THE DIVINE HOLINESS and of the wrath of God against sin, “For our God is a consuming fire.” Observe, then, from this most solemn sentence that the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament (Deuteronomy 4:24). While the Lord is merciful, infinitely so, and His name is Love; yet still our God is a consuming fire, and sin shall not live in His sight. If your offering and mine be evil, it will be an abomination unto Him. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; if our worship and service are mingled with hypocrisy and pride, He will not endure them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Acceptable service

I. OUR RELATION TO GOD, PRODUCED BY THE GOSPEL, NECESSARILY DEMANDS OUR SERVICE. God has given us salvation at a tremendous cost. He not only sent His Son, but He spared not that Son. God not only spike by prophets, and by holy men of old, but He was “in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” We serve, therefore, not merely an existent Deity, a splendid and majestic God, but we serve One who has wrought and suffered loss, and made valuable cost, and borne diminishing, and self-emptying, and death for us. The kingdom is not a mere natural growth, not a mere inheritance; it is a conquest gained after terrible conflict, assured only at the price of the blood of Jesus Christ. Hence logic, and rhetoric, and poetry, and art--these are poor responses to such service for us as God has rendered. Even praise, though it should be in hymns themselves inspired, seems feeble as a return for such affluence of service as we have received. We, too, must serve; we, too, must render back in thankfulness all that we have, all that we are.

II. THE SERVICE WHICH WE CAN RENDER UNTO GOD IS THE CONTINUAL SENSE OF GRATEFULNESS UNDER WHICH WE OUGHT TO LIVE TOWARDS HIM. The position of the believing recipient of the grace of God is a paradox. He must serve; and yet what service can he render? What does God need? How shall the Infinite and the Eternal be added to or made more great?

Besides, what have we that we can render? All that is ours is already God’s. From Him it came; by Him it consists; on Him it depends. To give Him aught, then, is only to give Him His own. Oh, wondrous paradox of a Divine necessity! We must serve, and we have no service; we must render, and we have and are nothing. See yonder snowflake dropping into the ocean. It has vanished in a moment, and is lost in the boundless fulness of that heaving deep. What can the snowflake add to the immensity of waters? Was it not itself exhaled from that ocean, and ascending as vapour, caught by the cold of the sky, and sent back again to its ocean source? See yonder mirror, flashing back the light towards the sun. What shall that reflected beam add to the glory and brightness of the centre of all light? It is only the return of the ray upon its own path, which had already come from the sun itself. And so what is our service, what is the best we can do, the richest we can give? It has only found the place whence it first came. Here, then, our text comes to our help. “Let us have gratefulness,” it says, “and by this let us serve God acceptably.” “Whoso offereth thanks glorifieth Me, and follows a path in which I will show him the salvation of Elohim.” This spirit changes all life

into a service. Every scene is a temple. Every word is worship. A work of bounty, of compassion, of self-denial, does not exhaust this grateful spirit. It does always its best, and then, when the best is done, cries with true self-knowledge, “We are but unprofitable servants.” And may it not be here, that the quality of the service, as suggested by the word “acceptably” of our text, should rightly be considered? Acceptable service we are commanded to render, and the more we contemplate the service, and the power we have to pay it, the more clearly we find our inability, our utter bankruptcy even of gratitude. Then, we remember that the sacrifice, which redeemed our souls from death, the atonement by which our sins were expiated and our guilt removed, still remains all efficient, ceaseless in its power, infinite in its appealing force with God. “The things that were shaken” passed away, we learned, “that the things that could not be shaken” might remain. And the blended law and love which were found in the “ blood that speaketh better things than that of Abel,” in the Jesus, “Mediator of the new covenant,” these passed not, but remain for ever. And so our failing gratitude, our empty return, our poor gift of service--these can all be filled to a Divine fulness at the Cross of Jesus.

III. WE LEARN THE SPIRIT IN WHICH OUR SERVICE SHOULD BE FOR EVER RENDERED. “With reverent submission, and godly fear.” Reverent submission is the becoming, and careful, and observant attitude of the soul, keenly alive to the holiness of God and its own unworthiness. Our words should be few and fitting and well chosen, our penitence deep and real, our feeling true and sweet, our desires pure and high; and thus should we worship and bow down with “reverence and godly fear.” (L. D.Bevan, D. D.)The true spirit of service

I once saw a beautiful device and motto painted on the walls of a Sabbath-school. It was an ox standing between an altar and a plough, with the words underneath, “Ready for either.” The altar represented suffering, and the plough serving; and the ox stood ready to be laid on the altar or to be yoked into the plough, equally ready for suffering or serving, as the owner wished. We should ask God to make us ready for either. Your life will be a poor withered thing unless you try to serve Christ. An old man reading the Bible came to the words, “Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” He stopped and said with a smile, “Yes, and ye are your own friends too.” He is his own worst enemy who shuns the service of Christ.

With reverence and godly fear

ReverenceRobert Hall once remarked, when criticising the habit of a lady addicted to

easy, familiar talk of the Divine Being: “It is a great mistake to affect this kind of familiarity with the King of kings, and speak of Him as though He were a next door neighbour, from the pretence of love.” Godly fear:

Love and fear are the positive and negative poles of the same electric bar, and are both forces convertible into aids to holiness. Love rules in the home, and its sunshine is the life of all who dwell therein; but fear of marring the domestic peace, spoiling the domestic purity, or poisoning the domestic joy, is a temper that pervades and chastens, hallows and enlarges the household life. Our soldiers fight for the love of country, but how unspeakably they are goaded forward in the severity of battle by the dread of losing their country’s flag! In the finest types of married life, it is not till years of perfect communion and of character-assimilating love have made husband and wife a complete unity, and blent soul with soul, and will with will, that all fear is gone--if indeed it ever is. Certainly in the earlier stages it is a spur to that continual and anxious attention to aid, and not to hinder, in developing the one life, which finally becomes the gracious habit and beautiful form of the domestic ministry. (J. Clifford, D. D.)

Verse 29Hebrews 12:29

Our God is a consuming fireThe fire of God

I.THE FACT. It is doubly certified. Science and revelation attest it with concordant voices. The testimony of Nature, as interpreted by science, affirms the working upon a prodigious scale of a law of destruction, ever since life first appeared upon the globe. The scientific formula of this law is in the familiar phrase, “the survival of the fittest.” For countless ages there has been going on throughout the domain of physical life, a relentless extirpation of the weak by the strong, of the sickly by the healthy, of the ill-conditioned by the welt-conditioned. The gradual development of improved forms of life has been secured by the constant destruction of inferior and deteriorated forms. There is no statement of the Bible to which science, in studying the development of nature, more thoroughly asserts than to this: “Our God is a consuming fire.” But when we pass up from the lower

forms of life in which we see this inexorable rooting up and weeding out of the less vigorous and healthy, we find in humanity a life which is capable of improvement by a different method. God introduces a higher method when He introduces a higher subject that is capable of it. The chief difference between man and the highest of the creatures below him is in the teachableness of man. Hence the difference of method in the improvement of the lower and the higher types of life. In the lower, improvement by elimination of the unfit; the unimprovable perish. But in the higher, education of the unfit; the improvable are saved. The method which, in the lower, results in the survival of the fittest, is superseded in the higher by a method of fitting to survive. But now we have to observe that, wherever this higher method is resisted, the lower method still holds sway. See how sins against the body are punished still by fiery inflammations, hectic consumptions, burning ulcers, fierce disorders of nerve and brain, in which the drunkard, the debauchee, the glutton, and other transgressors of the laws of physical health are, as it were, consumed from among the living. See, also, how national or social sins against humanity, righteousness, purity, or any of the laws of social health, are punished by social cancers, which burn out social patriotism, eat away the social conscience, consume the nerves of national life, devour the youth in the heats of vice, kindle the conflagrations of war, and shrivel UP the glory of empire. The same thing is shown, and with special significance, by the familiar phenomena of remorse.

II. OUR PERSONAL RELATION TO THE FACT. We shall best approach the truth by entering into sympathy with the sentiment apparent in the text. There is no tone of dismay in it. It is inexpressibly solemn, but with no sign of shrinking as from an object of dread. It is uttered with the profoundest awe, but without the slightest sign of alarm, and seems to speak as from under a safe shelter in the blazing throne itself. The whole thought is coloured by the dominating word of sympathy and affection--“our.” So might the dear child of some strict guardian of the law say: “My father is terribly just.” It is spoken out of a heart that is at one with God in the peace of a filial endeavour to think His thought and to live His truth--a heart for which the fire of God has no terror, because no evil which belongs to that fire is guiltily held back from it. It is spoken out of a heart in which is even now progressing that purifying work which was ascribed in prophecy to Jesus (Matthew 3:11). Thus, when we have seen a little child put forth its hand to some forbidden object, we have seen that hand drop nerveless, and the whole frame recoil in confusion, as the mother’s glance of mild reproof shot through the

windows of the tempted soul--“a consuming fire” to the impulse of transgression. So is the thought of “our God” to a loving child of God. As his irregular desires and selfish impulses melt away in his awakened consciousness of the Father’s presence, he finds there is grace and salvation in his wholesome experience that to his sin “our God is a consuming fire.” (J. M. Whiton, D. D.)The consuming fire

1. Fire is the most powerful agent in the world. It supplies heat, which is the source of life and existence in all nature. It destroys all vegetable substances, and resolves them into their original elements. It purifies all corruption, and removes all impurities.

2. But fire cannot destroy or injure the valuables of the mineral kingdom. Gold and silver are purified by its influence, their impurities are destroyed, but they themselves are uninjured. The excrescences are removed, but the substance remains.

3. This image is introduced to represent the influence of God’s Spirit. What does it consume? Not the precious gold or the valued stones, but the more worthless substances--hay, straw, stubble, &c.

I. ALL MEN MUST PASS THROUGH THE FIRES. That is, they must be subject to the scrutiny of God’s righteous judgment. This is as a refiner’s furnace.

II. THE RIGHTEOUS, BEING AS PURE GOLD, SHALL COME OUT OF THIS FIRE BEAUTIFUL AND UNINJURED. The dross of their characters shall be removed, their corruption shall be destroyed, and their hopes, confidence, and prospects enlarged.

III. THE WICKED, BEING LIKE THE CHAFF, SHALL BE CONSUMED IN THE FURNACE. Their hopes--being as a spider’s web--shall be carried away.

IV. OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE. 1. TO His people this is a welcome thought; for He shall consume all that is

hateful and repulsive to them. 2. To the sinful it is a thought of terror; for He shall destroy all that upon which

they trust, and leave them helpless, desolate, lost. (Homilist.)The consuming fire:

The use of the element of fire as a symbol for the Supreme Being is familiar enough. Ancient marriage-rites involved the use of fire as a sign of that divinity in whose presence the marriage was performed, and who was invoked as a witness of the unbroken pledge taken by those entering into the sacred bond of wedlock. In India a fire is kindled of some sacred wood. The mango-tree is often used for

this purpose. The fire is lighted in the middle of the room; the young people sit on stools. The Brahmin commences an incantation. Then they arise and walk round the fire three times. “Fire is the witness of their covenant, and, if they break it, fire will be their destruction.” “Call your son,” says the father of the bride according to an ancient story, “call your son, that I may give him to my daughter in the presence of the god of fire, that he may be the witness.” Then “Usteyar gave his daughter Verunte in marriage, the fire being the witness.” Who can fail in this to see a reflection of the story of the burning lamp and the smoking furnace in the vision of Abraham? It is not wonderful that the worship of fire should have been one of the forms of idolatry by which men corrupted the true idea of the ever-blessed God. The rising sun in his morning splendours, the strength of that luminary in noonday brightness, the glory of the setting sun, the moon in her beauty walking through the palaces of the heavens, the countless stars shining in the glories of the nightly firmament, what more striking images of God, if man must employ such!

1. In the first place, there is the idea of purity, which belongs as an essential quality to the element itself. It is not possible to conceive of a flame as impure. And such flame is incorruptible too. Water and air, both also symbols of purity, may be tainted and befouled. But the flame, when still flame, compels whatever it may touch, and changes it into itself, into its own purity and freedom from defilement. Fire is the final, the only perfect purgation, because it is itself the only absolutely pure element. Who can tell the purity of God whose symbol is a flame? No word of ours can add to that simple idea.

2. Fire is a defence, a means of protection, and to symbolise the strong refuges of God’s people is thus often used. The fire descending and consuming the offering was a gracious and encouraging sign of acceptance and favour. The chariots and horsemen of fire proved to be the defence and guard of the man of God. The pillar of fire that the people saw rising above the encampment at night and towering into the heaven, was their cheer, their protection in the wandering of the wilderness. What comfort does the bivouacing party not take in the fire that is kindled among the tents; and as it throws its strange and fantastic illumination upon the scene around, how the forest darkness is illumined or the solitude of the plain cheered by a sort of companionship of light! when the travellers in lonely places, where only the stealthy footfall of the beast of prey upon the

crisp leaves, or the crackling boughs and branches fallen from the overhanging trees, breaks the solemn silence, light up their fires and make a line of blazing points around their halting-place, they know that they can sleep securely, and their beasts of burden are safe from the sudden spring of the tiger, the cruel teeth of the hungry lion. So is our God the comfort and the defence of His people. In the lonely ways of life He lights their path, and casts a gleam of comfort upon their desolate spirits. The world were very cold and very dark without our God. The vast spaces of the universe would stretch around us into illimitable distance, and nothing could issue thence to press upon our souls but the forces of death and destruction, ruin and despair. But let the soul feel that God is there, and then the whole is enlightened by a Father’s presence, and every force in nature becomes a ministry of love. What a refuge and a defence is God with His people! Around us prowl the enemies of the soul. The roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, is near, but we are centred within the love of God, and he dares not rush upon that consuming fire within which we are safe.

3. But the energy of fire is not only repellent; it also is communicative. Air may wear down a substance presented to it and reduce it to dust, water may dissolve and change the form of that upon which it acts; but fire seizes an object, separates its particles, kindles them to burning, and then compels them to burn up in the flame of its own consuming. Fire kindles, fire sets on fire. These symbols of the Divine Being suggest this comunicableness of the Divine nature and activity which is the very basis of our religious, our Divine life. That old legend of Prometheus, told by Apollodorus, how he made the first man and woman out of clay, and animated them by the fire which he stole from heaven, is only the grotesque and paganised version of the deep truth of the life of God within the soul of man that the Scriptures reveal and illustrate. It is fire that gives life. It is the burning rays of the sun that vitalise and inspire all the dead matter of the earth, and cover this world with the beauty and movement, the varied forms and colours and activities of plant and flower, bird and beast. Man’s life is but fire, and we get it from the central fire of the universe. And so of the higher life, the life of faith, of love, of holy character. This is gained from God. He who finds Jesus Christ, there finds God; and God in Christ, and by the

Holy Spirit, who comes through Christ, kindles the flame of a Divine life within his heart.

4. The passage from this thought to that of the purifying power of fire is not difficult or forced. Some have seen only this in the word. We think that would be too much. To limit the extent of the application so as not to see this, however, would be as completely to miss its significance. When the new life began, how much of earth mingled with its heavenly constituents! There was selfishness, and greed, and passion, and sloth. There was pride, and envy, and hard-heartedness, and love of the world. There was slackness and doubting, and infidelity and neglect. There was ingratitude and insensibility, blindness to the show of God’s face, and deafness to the sound of God’s voice. But slowly the burning flame of the Divine nature has purged the evil. “A consuming fire! “ A deeper, darker mystery still lies behind it all. Did the exhortation suggest us grace and piety, it also, in language unmistakable, bids us entertain a becoming and a godly fear. We have no desire to hide, we dare not hide, the solemn and the awful truth. That Divine nature, a burning fire, is a refuge, a defence, a quickening, purifying force; but be not deceived, it is also a destroying element. Material fire is purging to one thing when it is destructive of another. The fine gold it refines; the dross, the baser substance, it consumes, it destroys. And that Divine life which cleanses and renews, and purifies the faithful, the penitent, the obedient, becomes a burning indignation, a ceaseless and consuming fire against the soul that renders not its due honour and makes not its life its own. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)

The severity of GodI. WE WILL ENDEAVOUR TO GIVE YOU DISTINCT NOTIONS OF THAT

WHICH THE SCRIPTURE CALLS THE WRATH, THE ANGER, THE VENGEANCE OF GOD. Recollect that when the Scripture speaks of the perfections and operations of God it borroweth images from the affections and actions of men. Things that cannot be known to us by themselves can be understood only by analogy. Divine things are of this kind. From this remark follows a precaution--that is, that we must carefully lay aside every part of the emblem that agreeth only to men from whom it is borrowed, and apply only that part to the Deity which is compatible with the eminence of His perfections.

II. Observe THAT THOSE EMBLEMS OF WRATH AND VENGEANCE UNDER WHICH GOD IS REPRESENTED TO US HAVE ONE PART THAT CANNOT BE

ATTRIBUTED TO HIM, because it is not compatible with the eminence of His perfections, and another that must be applied to Him because it is.

1. It is a consequence of the frailty or of the depravity of men that their anger inclines them to hate those whom they ought to love, and in whose happiness they ought to interest themselves as far as they can without violating the laws of equity. Such a hatred cannot be attributed to God; He loves all His intelligent creatures.

2. It is a consequence of human frailty or depravity that men’s wrath makes them taste a barbarous pleasure in tormenting those who are the objects of it, and in feasting, as it were, on their miseries. This is incompatible with the eminence of the perfections of God.

3. It is a consequence of the frailty or of the depravity of men that their anger disorders their bodies and impairs their minds. See, the eyes sparkle, the mouth foams, the animal spirits are in a flame; these obscure the faculties of the mind, and prevent the weighing of those reasons that plead for the guilty offender; anger prejudgeth him, and, in spite of many powerful pleas in his favour, his ruin is resolved. All these are incompatible with the eminence of the perfections of God. God is a spirit; He is not subject to revolutions of sense; reasons of punishing a sinner never divert His attention from motives of pardoning the man or of moderating his pain.

4. It is a consequence of the frailty and depravity of men that their anger makes them usurp a right which belongs to God. God useth His own right when He punisheth sin.

5. It is a consequence of the frailty and depravity of men that time doth not abate their resentment, and that the only reason which prevents the rendering of evil for evil is a want of opportunity; as soon as an opportunity offers they eagerly embrace it. This is incompatible with the eminence of the perfections of God; He hath at all times the means of punishing the guilty.

6. It is a consequence of the frailty and depravity of men that their anger puts them upon considering and punishing a pardonable frailty as an atrocious crime. This is incompatible with the eminence of the Divine perfections. If we imagine that God acts so in any cases, it is because we have false notions of sins, and think that a pardonable frailty which is an atrocious crime.

III. We are to conciliate WHAT THE SCRIPTURE SAITH OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD WITH WHAT IT SAITH OF HIS ANGER OR VENGEANCE and as the two subjects never appear more irreconciliable than when, having used all our endeavours to terrify people who defer their conversion till a dying illness, we actually take pains to comfort those who have deferred it till that time, we will endeavour to harmonise the goodness and justice of God in that particular point of view.

1. First, let us endeavour, in a general view, to reconcile the goodness of God with His justice by laying down a few principles.

2. Let us now apply this general harmony of the goodness and severity of God to the removing of a seeming inconsistency in the conduct of your preachers and casuists, who first use every effort to alarm and terrify your minds with the idea of a death-bed repentance, and afterward take equal pains to comfort you when ye have deferred your repentance to that time, and when your case appears desperate. Why do we not despair of a man who delays his conversion till the approach of death? Because that order, which constitutes the eminence of the Divine perfections, doth not allow that a sincere conversion, a conversion that reforms the sin and renews the sinner, should be rejected by God. Now we cannot absolutely deny the possibility of a sincere death-bed conversion for the following reasons.

3. It is true God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; and it is possible that the approach of death may make deeper impressions on you than either sermons or pious books have made: but yet our God is a consuming fire. What a time is a dying illness for the receiving of such impressions! Ah! what obstacles! What a world of obstacles oppose such extravagant hopes and justify the efforts of those who endeavor to destroy them! Here is business that must be settled; a will which must be made; a number of articles that must be discussed; there are friends who must be embraced. There the illness increaseth, pains multiply, agonies convulse, the whole soul, full of intolerable sensations, loseth the power of seeing and hearing, thinking and reflecting. It is true God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; and we have neither a sufficient knowledge of other people’s hearts, nor of our own, to affirm with certainty when their faculties are entirely contaminated: but yet our God is a consuming fire. We know men to whom the truth is become unintelligible, in consequence of the disguise in which they have taken the pains to clothe it, and who have accustomed themselves to

palliate vice till they are become incapable of perceiving its turpitude. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, it is true; and we have seen some examples of people who have proved, since their recovery, that they were truly converted in sickness, and on whose account we presume that others may possibly be converted by the same means: but yet our God is a consuming fire. How rare are these examples! Doth this require proof? Must we demonstrate it? Ye are our proofs; ye yourselves are our demonstrations. It is true God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; and God worketh miracles in religion as well as in nature: but yet our God is a consuming fire. Who can assure himself that, having abused common grace, he shall obtain extraordinary assistances? It is true God’s thoughts are not our thoughts: and there is nothing in the Holy Scriptures which inpowers us to shut the gates of heaven against a dying penitent; we have no authority to tell you that there is no more hope for you, but that ye are lost without remedy: but yet our God is a consuming fire. There are hundreds of passages in our Bibles which authorise us--what am I saying? there are hundreds of passages that command us--not to conceal anything from the criminal; there are hundreds of passages which empower and enjoin us to warn you, you who are fifty years of age, you who are sixty, you who are fourscore, that still to put off the work of your conversion is a madness, an excess of inflexibility and indolence, which all the flames of hell can never expiate. (J. Saurin.)

Divine love is fireI. Fire is UNIVERSAL, and God’s love is everywhere--the life of all the living,

the beauty of all the beautiful, the blessedness of all the blest. II. Fire INFLICTS PAIN. And a flash of Divine love on a guilty conscience

enkindles a hell. III. Fire CREATES STORMS. And all the moral tempests in the universe have

their origin in Divine love. IV. Fire is PERPETUALLY ACTIVE. SO is Divine love--creating, sustaining,

and directing all things. V. Fire has a DEVOURING CAPABILITY. Divine love burns up falsehoods,

wrongs, and all the ten thousand forms of sins. VI. Fire has the POWER TO CHANGE ALL THINGS INTO ITS OWN NATURE.

So Divine love will turn all human souls into love one day. Evil cannot remain evil for ever before it. (Homilist.)

God a consuming fire:Because God doth not always show Himself in the likeness of fire, a terrible

God, pouring down the coals of His wrath upon us, because He beareth with us, and doth not by and by punish us for our sins, we think we may condemn Him, we may serve Him as we list, any service will content Him. Ay, but remember likewise that our God is a consuming fire. It is long, peradventure, before a fire breaks forth; iS may lie lurking a great while and not be seen; but if it begin to flame, to set upon a town, without great prevention it will burn up the whole town. So God is patient, His wrath is long a-kindling; but if we provoke Him too much, He will break forth as a fire and consume us all. He is a fearful God with whom we have to deal, therefore let us serve Him with fear and reverence, in holiness and righteousness all our days, that we may not only avoid this fire, but enjoy the light of the heavenly Jerusalem for ever. (W. Jones, D. D.)God a consuming fire:

This is one of the shortest texts in the Bible. It takes rank with those other three brief sentences which declare the nature of God: God is Light, God is Love, God is Life. But to many it is one of the most awful sayings in the whole of Scripture. It rankles in the memory; recurs continually to the uneasy conscience; and rings its wild tocsin of alarm in the ear of the anxious inquirer. And yet there is an aspect in which it may be viewed which will make it one of the most comforting, precious passages in the whole range of inspiration.

I. OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE AND THERE IS TERROR IN THE SYMBOL. But the terror is reserved for those who unceasingly and persistently violate His laws and despise His love. Sin is no light matter. In this world even it is fearfully avenged. Walk through certain wards in our hospitals, and tell me if anything could exceed the horror, the agony, or the penalty which is being inflicted on those who have flagrantly violated the laws of nature. And so far as we can see the physical penalties which follow upon wrong-doing are not unto life and restoration, but unto death and destruction. It is necessary that these sufferings should be veiled from the eye of man, but surely they must be taken into account, when we estimate God’s treatment of sin. And if such pain, keen as fire, consumes those who violate physical law, surely we must admit that there is a still more awful doom for those who violate the laws of God’s love and grace and pleading mercy.

II. OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE AND THERE IS COMFORT AND BLESSING IN THE THOUGHT. When we yield to God’s love, and open our

hearts to Him, He enters into us, and becomes within us a consuming fire, not to ourselves, but to the evil within us. So that, in a very deep and blessed sense, we may be said to dwell with the devouring fire, and to walk amid the eternal burnings.

1. Fire is warmth. We talk of ardent desire, warm emotion, enthusiasm’s glow and fire; and when we speak of God being within us as fire, we mean that He will produce in us a strong and constant affection to Himself. 2.. Fire is light. We are dark enough in our natural state, but when God comes into the tabernacle of our being, the shekinah begins to glow in the most holy place; and pours its waves of glory throughout the whole being, so that the face is suffused with a holy glow, and there is an evident elasticity and buoyancy of spirits which no world-joy can produce or even imitate.

3. Fire is purity. “How long, think you, would it take a workman with hammer and chisel to get the ore from the rocks in which it lies so closely embedded? But if they are flung into the great cylinder, and the fires fanned to torrid heat, and the draught roars through the burning mass, at nightfall the glowing stream of pure and fluid metal, from which all dross and rubbish are parted, flows into the waiting mould.” This is a parable of what God will do for us. Nay, more, He will burn up the wood, hay, and stubble, the grit and dross, the selfishness and evil of our nature, so that at last only the gold and silver and precious stones shall remain. The bonds that fetter us will be consumed, but not a hair of our heads shall fall to the ground. (M. B.Meyer, B. A.)

God as fire:As regards the use of fire as a symbol in Holy Scripture, while it is true that it

often represent the punitive wrath of God, it is equally certain that it has not always this meaning. Quite as often it is the symbol of God’s purifying energy and might. Fire was not the symbol of Jehovah’s vengeance in the burning bush. When the Lord is represented as sitting “ as a refiner and a purifier of silver,” surely the thought is not of vengeance, but of purifying mercy. We should rather say that fire, in Scripture usage, is the symbol of the intense energy of the Divine nature, which continually acts upon every person and on everything, according to the nature of each person or thing; here conserving, there destroying; now cleansing, now consuming. The same fire which burns the wood, hay, and stubble purifies the gold and silver. (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.)The beneficent becoming destruction

A glass inkstand was placed on the table so that the sun’s rays fell upon it. Brightly and cheerily, no doubt, they played upon its facets and angles; but that inkstand affected these beautiful sunbeams in such a way as to extract from them heat in sufficient force to set the table upon which it stood on fire, reducing it, and all it came in contact with, into ashes. What is there more beautiful than the sunbeams? How they cheer, and cherish, and inspire nature all around! Yet there are some objects which can convert this thing of beauty, and health, and life into a consuming fire. So there are moral characters which extract death out of life; transform the loving, life-giving gospel into an instrument of destruction; in short, cause the God of love to become to them a consuming fire. (A. J. Parry.)Lightning as well as light

I am thankful that men do not now speak of the penalty of sin, as if, according to Foster, the Almighty “were a dreadful King of Furies, whose music is the cries of victims, and whose glory requires to be illustrated by the ruin of His creation.” We cannot speak in terms that are strong enough, or in tones that are pathetic enough, of the love of God in Christ. But he is unfaithful who, by silence or by speech, diminishes the sense of the evil of sin, and of the certainty and awfulness of the penalty that follows it. A representation of Jehovah as a Being of infinite good nature, whose Fatherly love is reduced to grandfatherly weakness, who cannot inflict pain and suffering, and who will easily overlook sin, is a false representation; it is contrary to well-known facts, it is oblivious of the greatness of the sacrifice of Christ. When I was in Naples I thought nothing could be more beautiful than that fine bay, with its clear blue waters, and its picturesque surroundings; but eight miles away there was Vesuvius, with the column of smoke ever resting on its summit, with the elements of destruction within it, and with the effects of its destructive power seen in Herculaneum and Pompeii near its base. So behind all the beautiful and attractive aspects of the gospel of grace there is the mount of blackness and darkness and tempest, which cannot be blotted out. There is death as well as life in the world; there are cemeteries as well as gardens, gaols as well as schools. Christ has not thrown the winnowing fan from His hand; there was lightning as well as light in His speech; words of doom came from the lips of Him who looked upon Jerusalem through tears. He teaches us that sin is not to be trifled with, and we preach Him as the deliverer “ from the wrath to come.” (James Owen.)

13 Chapter 13

Verses 1-25

Verse 1Hebrews 13:1

Let brotherly love continueBrotherly love

I.WHAT IS BROTHERLY LOVE? It is that feeling of mutual regard, subsisting among the members of the faithful, which is felt to be due from one brother to another, and without which, in the intercourse of domestic life, there could be neither peace in families nor comfort in society. If, though hatred should not exist among them, there were yet no cordial affection, nothing like a desire to promote each other’s welfare, the members of that family would deprive themselves of the most fruitful source of enjoyment still permitted to fallen human nature. But brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus form but one family in the eyes of our common Parent; and He has commanded them to love as brethren.

II. How IS BROTHERLY LOVE TO BE CULTIVATED AND ATTAINED? There may be differences of sentiment and practice in many particulars, which human infirmity will always occasion, even among those who are endeavouring to find the way to the same heavenly city. But there must be a reception of the Lord Jesus; in all His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, and a desire to submit to the guidance of His Word, and to be led by the gracious direction of His Spirit, as a foundation for that brotherly love in which we are commanded to live. Common feelings imply common principles; and the peculiar love of Christians must have the peculiar faith of Christians for its basis and origin.

III. How MAY BROTHERLY LOVE MOST SECURELY CONTINUE? 1. Of course the first object, with this view, should he to retain the feelings in

which that pure affection for the Christian brotherhood originated; to recollect, from day to day, that” one is our Master, even Christ, and that all we are brethren”; and still more especially to look upon every trait of Christian character as a link of attachment, a feature in that family likeness which belongs to all the faithful, and gives them an instinctive interest in each other’s well-being. But, after all, the chief preservative of this characteristic grace of Christianity is, the love of Christ Himself, which will always necessarily expand in love for the brethren.

2. But, further; if we desire this mutual regard for all the brethren to continue among us, and to grow, we must attend to two things.

3. Again; every man has his infirmities, his failings, his besetting sins. There is no habit more injurious to the exercise of brotherly love than that of dwelling unnecessarily on the defects of those whom we are bound to love as brethren. Whatever be your neighbour’s faults, he is still your brother, for whom Christ died. I have not now spoken of the duty of forgiveness, because, among those who are Christians indeed, the occasions for the exercise of this virtue ought to be rare. But yet a forgiving disposition is so essential an attribute of Christianity that brotherly love cannot be cultivated without it.

4. But the grand instrument for the removal of all impediments to our charity, from within or from without, is intercessory prayer. (E. G. Marsh, M. A.)

Brotherly loveA brother is a hallowed name. Born of the same parents, nursed with the same

untiring, tender care, dependent on the same protection, and sharing in the same blessings of the same common hearthstone, expectant heirs of a common inheritance, the tie that binds me to my brother is one most sacred in its nature, and nothing ought to be allowed to injure, much lest to destroy, this hallowed relationship.

I. BROTHERLY LOVE MAY BE DISTURBED AND SOMETIMES SEVERED. Christianity does not deprive us of our individuality. With the same inspired truth before us we differ, honestly, in our opinions as to the meaning or extent of that truth. We still have our pride of opinion. Again, we are liable to have our preferences and prejudices as well as our opinions. Here is need for the exercise of that charity “that thinketh no evil”; that, in honour, prefers another to itself. Love is magnetic. It attracts pure hearts together and all to God. It throws its wondrous power over sinful opposition, and with more than the skill of Orpheus is a true tamer of wild beasts. Love is the great law of gravity in God’s spiritual universe; it binds each orb and keeps it coherent, while it rolls all in harmony around the grand central sun. Love is the vitalising principle of truth and experience and duty. Love concentrates individual piety in intense beauty in the character of the Church, while it unifies and employs all the strength of the Church in its sacred mission on the earth.

II. Again, THERE IS THE PURPOSE FORMED BY EACH LOVER OF THE SAVIOUR THAT BROTHERLY LOVE SHALL CONTINUE. The first approaches

of the small foxes that injure the vines are carefully guarded against. Special care is taken to put out the least spark of “envy, or malice, or uncharitableness,” that the enemy may throw into the soul. The little courtesies of Christian as well as polite society are tendered with suitable delicacy, and “ little deeds of kindness” are kept busily at work receiving and reciprocating true brotherly love.

III. BROTHERLY LOVE ACCORDS TO OTHERS WHAT WE CLAIM FOR OURSELVES, AND MORE--for, in true humility, in honour it “esteems others better than itself.” It is deferential, forbearing, and forgiving. To rejoice in the success of a brother, more than in our own, is strong evidence that we “have been with Jesus,” and breathed largely of His Spirit. “Let brotherly love continue.”

1. This should be the theory and practice of the ministers and officers of the Church.

2. Among different denominations of Christians this should be observed. 3. Among members of the same Church this apostolic injunction is a vital

necessity. It is utterly opposed to detraction of the gifts, ability, and usefulness either of ministers or of any member of the Church.

4. We should cultivate this principle of brotherly love, for through it we must show, by contrast with unsanctified human nature, that Christ’s religion makes us gentle, kind, patient, and forgiving; and as Christ’s history is the loveliest exhibition of Divine love, so we must reflect the highest honour on our once crucified but now risen Lord, by loving the brethren.

5. Nowhere is there a more attractive picture of genuine piety than in “ the fellowship of the saints.” (W. H. Anderson, D. D.)

Love one another:Love is one of the most important and distinctive of all Christian graces, and

some of the churches seem to have been distinguished by a great abundance of it. Writing to the Thessalonians, the apostle says: “Concerning brotherly love, ye have no need that I write unto you.” “I thank God for all the grace that has abounded in you; still let it continue.” Let us now glance at the objects of brotherly love. In the first place, it must mean Christian brotherhood. Only as we love them for Christ’s sake have we any true brotherly love. But what is to be the rule of our brotherly love? It is to be after the measure and the pattern of our Lord’s love to us. This is the revealed standard, and it has been set before us most plainly again and again. When the Saviour announced it to His disciples He said: “A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you,” and very soon after He refers to it again and says: “This is My

commandment, that ye love one another.” Then He refers to the strongest proof of love: “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.” The Apostle Paul said: “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,” and the Apostle John said: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Why, this laying down of His life is the mystery of redemption, the strongest revelation of the Divine compassion, the innermost sanctuary of the absolute goodness. How can we attain to this standard of love? It is a good rule--aim high, or you will never excel. Ay, and this, too, is needed--for brotherly love has a good deal to do, to endure, and to give--a heart divinely tender, a hand divinely strong, a soul divinely generous. And now consider some reasons why we should join the apostle in his desire: “Let brotherly love continue.” First, it has a power of living and growing. Brotherly love is a living power. We may well and consistently say, “Let it continue.” In the trials that will come of the furthering of the cause of Christ, let brotherly love ever continue. The want of it hinders more than almost anything else. Besides, the presence and power of it is mightily helpful. The Saviour prayed that His disciples might be all one--not in oneness of ceremonial and creed, but in character and life with the Father and with the Son. But that was only to secure another object--that the world might know, that the world might believe that the Father had sent the Son. This was the direct effect produced by the descent of the new Christian life on the Day of Pentecost. The primitive disciples were few and poor, unlearned and despised. Yet by moral force alone they emptied the temples and demolished the altars, vanquished Caesar, the philosophers and priests, and changed the aspect of the world. By what? Supremely by the vision of the Crucified--that manifestation of matchless love, which at once showed what love for sinners was and could do. And next to that was the image of brotherly love, a Divine creation, sent amongst men. In a world where the few were tyrants and knew no mercy, and the many crushed and toiling slaves that found no pity--lo! they looked up, saw this new creation--men loving one another--and they said: “See how these Christians love one another!” and their hearts were eased, and a new life began in them, and a new life was conferred upon them. Was it so? There is no question. Then “let brotherly love continue.” Further, brotherly love is for the edification and establishment of the cause of Christ. Paul says: “Knowledge puffeth up; charity edifieth.” The great appointed force for all Christians, where by each believing man may attain to a full salvation, is faith; but faith works by love. Christian fidelity consists not merely

in speaking the truth--you only want a hot temper to do that sometimes--but in speaking the truth in love--a very rare and a very difficult thing. In the midst of all infirmities andsufferings to have a patience that never frets and an energy that never tires, forbearing one another in love--oh, there is the calm and glow of the divinest life that can possess the soul of a man I God grant that this grace of love may abide with you, because it edifies every way and everywhere. Let it continue in the midst of the infirmities and sufferings of life. One brother is rash, another sluggish; one vain, another proud; one rude, another sensitive; one shy, another forward. Amidst all imperfections there is nothing so good and nothing so helpful as brotherly love--meek, generous, thinking no evil, seeking not its own, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. And in one way or another all have their sufferings. These sufferings are to us a great mystery; yet one feels that they furnish a grand field for the exercise of brotherly love in which to speak its kind words, do its best deeds, win its triumphs, and shine forth in all its glory. Brotherly love is also a sign of grace, and a good one. A sign of grace, I say, and a blessed sign of grace, a mark of the true Church if you try to get it and keep it. Finally, “let brotherly love continue” until it return unto glory; for by Divine appointment it shall live in heaven and be perfect there. (John Aldis.)The duty of brotherly love

1. There is the express command of God and of Christ in regard to it. It is a permanent obligation.

2. The relationship continues, and so should the affection; the bond of brotherhood abides, and the love of the brotherhood should abide also.

3. The fountain from which it flows continues, and so also should the stream that flows from it.

4. The necessity for its cultivation continues, The preservation of brotherly love:

Brotherly love is very apt to be impaired if we do not endeavour continually to preserve it. It is a part of the wisdom of faith to consider aright the occasions of the decay of mutual love, and the means of its preservation. Without this we cannot comply with this caution and injunction in a due manner.

I. The CAUSES OF THE DECAY OF THIS LOVE, whence it doth not continue as it ought, are

1. Self-love. 2. Love of this present world. 3. Abounding of lusts in the hearts of men.

4. Ignorance of the true nature, both of the grace and the exercise of it, in its proper duties.

5. Principally, the loss of a concernment in the foundation of it, which is an interest in gratuitous adoption, and the participation of the same spirit, the same new nature and life. Where this is not, though conviction of truth and the profession of it may for a season make an appearance of this brotherly love, it will not long continue.

II. THE OCCASIONS OF ITS DECAY AND LOSS ARE1. Differences in opinion and practice about things in religion. 2. Unsuitableness of natural tempers and inclinations. 3. Readiness to receive a sense of appearing provocations. 4. Different, and sometimes inconsistent secular interests. 5. An abuse of spiritual gifts, by pride on the one hand, or envy on the other. 6. Attempts for domination, inconsistent in a fraternity; which are all to be

watched against. III. THE MEANS OF ITS CONTINUANCE OR PRESERVATION ARE

1. An endeavour to grow and thrive in the principle of it, or the power of adopting grace.

2. A due sense of the weight or moment of this duty, from the especial institution and command of Christ.

3. Of the trial which is committed thereunto, of the sincerity of our grace, and the truth of our sanctification. For “by this we know that we are passed from death unto life.”

4. A due consideration of the use, yea, necessity of this duty to the glory of God, and edification of the Church; and

5. Of that breach of union, loss of peace, disorder and confusion, which must and will ensue on the neglect of it.

6. Constant watchfulness against all those vicious habits of mind, in self-love, or love of the world, which are apt to impair it.

7. Diligent heed that it be not insensibly impaired in its vital acts; such as are patience, forbearance, readiness to forgive, unaptness to believe evil, without which no other duties of it will be long continued.

8. Fervent prayer for supplies of grace enabling us thereunto, with sundry others of a like nature. And if we judge not this duty of such importance as to be constant in the use of these means for the maintenance of it, it will not continue. (John Owen, D. D.)

Christian unionI. ITS NATURE.

1. Unity in sentiment. 2. Union of feeling. 3. Union of effort.

II. THE DESIRABLENESS OR IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIAN UNION. 1. The teachings of Scripture. 2. The example of the early Christians. 3. The evils of division. 4. Christians are engaged in the same cause. 5. Union is strength. 6. Union is promotive of happiness. 7. It is only by the exercise of that love, which is the substratum of union, that

one can resemble God, and become imbued with the spirit of heaven. (W. C. Whitcomb.)

Motives to brotherly love1. Brotherly love is a grace absolutely necessary. It is the foundation whereon

all duties that have relation to the brethren are erected. 2. Brotherly love is one of the fairest and most glorious flowers in the

Christian garden. It makes men amiable before God and man. It sends forth a sweet fragrant savour wheresoever it is.

3. Such is the life and vigour of brotherly love, as it puts on them in whom it is unto all duties. A stronger incitation and enforcement thereunto cannot be given.

4. So violent and irresistible is the power of love, as it will pass through all difficulties, and overthrow all obstacles. It will not be hindered from doing the good it should do.

5. Love is as salt, which infuseth a savoury and wholesome taste into such things as would otherwise be fresh and flashy. It is therefore joined with sundry other duties for this very purpose, even to season them. The apostle so far commends love in this kind, as he maketh all things unsavoury and unprofitable without it (1   Corinthians 13:1-3 ). He therefore giveth this general advice, “Let-all your things be done in love” (1   Corinthians 16:14 ).

6. Love hath a strong operation on others. It is a fire which heateth the things that are near it. As apprehension of God’s love to us works love in us to

God (1   John 4:19 ), so others’ apprehension of our love to them will make them love us. And as love puts us on to all kindness unto them, so their love of us will put them on to do all kindness unto us. David and Jonathan.

7. Love is one of the most comfortable graces that a man can have. It gives evidence to others, and brings assurance to a man’s own soul of the love of God to him, of his right to Jesus Christ, of the Spirit’s abode in him, and of his right to the heavenly inheritance.

8. Love is an especial means of strengthening and establishing the kingdom of Christ. It unites the subjects and members of that kingdom in one, which is a means of great stability.

9. The nearest union that is betwixt any in this world is betwixt professors of the faith, and that in their mutual relation one to another, and in the joint relation that they all have to Christ. Resemblances of the nearest relation that be, are used to set this forth, as of a foundation and edifice Ephesians 2:20-21) of a vine and branches (John 15:5), of a husband and wife (Ephesians 5:32; 2   Corinthians 11:2 ), of a head and body (Ephesians 1:22-23). This near union should stir us up to brotherly love; for therein we love that body which is styled Christ (1   Corinthians 12:12 ).

10. This world s hatred of saints should the more stir us up to love them. Christ enforceth this duty upon this ground (John 15:17-19). The world most hateth saints, and that, in this very respect, because they are saints.

But brotherly love is a sovereign antidote against the poison of the world’s hatred, and a precious cordial to revive and support the saint’s spirits. (W. Gouge.)Brotherly love:

A truly pious man, of rank in society, was in the habit of entertaining persons of very humble circumstances of life, if they only gave evidence of true religion. A friend of his, who was accustomed to measure everything according to the standard of this world, pleasantly rallied him on the subject of his associates; intimating his surprise that he should admit to his hospitality and friendship persons of so obscure origin, and of so little estimation among men. He replied, in a tone of unaffected humility, that as he could scarcely hope to enjoy so elevated a rank as they, in a future world, he knew not why he should despise them in the present. The reproof came home to the feelings of the proud man, and he was silent; conscience whispering, meanwhile, how dim were his

prospects of rising in the future world to an equality with the pious poor, if his Christian friend was in danger of falling below them. Brotherly love among the early Christians

A striking instance of the brotherly love of the early Christians transpired in the great plague that raged round Alexandria, during the reign of Gallienus. At the first appearance of the symptoms, the heathen drove the infected man from their sight; they tore themselves from their dearest connections; they threw their friends half-dead into the streets, and left their dead unburied. But, in contrast with this cruel selfishness, “the Christians, in the abundance of their brotherly love,” as their Bishop Dionysius says, “did not spare themselves, but mutually attending each other, they would visit the sick without fear, and ministering to each other for the sake of Christ, cheerfully gave up their lives with them. Many died after their care had restored others to health. Many, who took the bodies of their Christian brethren into their hands and bosoms, and closed their eyes, and buried them with every mark of attention, soon followed them in death.”

Verse 2Hebrews 13:2

Entertain strangersEntertaining strangers:

The text derives much of its importance from the times in which it was written.They were perilous times for Christians. The disciples of Christ had often to flee to strange cities, and in entertaining some stranger, a man might find he had entertained a Christian, or had given shelter and food to a messenger or angel of the Church, and he would be more than repaid by the discourse and benediction of the wayfarer.

I. SMALL DUTIES ARE OFTEN ENFORCED BY GREAT PROMISES. Small duties, like small mercies, are often overlooked. God has scattered His gifts over life’s pathway, we mistake them for wild flowers or mere weeds; but they yield fragrance when pressed by our worn and weary feet. Life is made up, to a great extent, of small things,--they give symmetry and beauty to character, and make up the proportions of life; they are necessary to the order of the family and the harmony of the home; their absence would soon be detected in the irregular movements of the simple machinery, or in the note of dissonance which would mar the music of life. There are numerous instances in the past, in which pity to the oppressed and the captive, kindness to the stranger, and charity to man,

were enforced by great promises; by the promise oftentimes of “living long in the land which the Lord their God had given them.” And so in the text men are to entertain strangers because some “have entertained angels unawares.”

II. OUR MINISTRATIONS MAY BE AS IMPORTANT FOR OUR SAKE AS FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE TO WHOM THEY ARE RENDERED. We get, in one sense, as much good by giving, as we confer on those who receive our gifts. We are to be merciful, that thus we may imitate God. Hospitality is of importance, because it involves a genial nature,--a large, loving heart, consideration and care for man. A man who is not a lover of hospitality is in danger of living to himself, shutting up life within himself, being separate and divided from his fellows. Man is a social being, and he who would have friends “must show himself friendly.” Apparently incidental circumstances often lead to great and unexpected results. An introduction to a stranger--an act of courtesty--a few passing words, have led to results which have influenced all the future. Men have only thought of entertaining a stranger, and they have entertained an angel. We are to do life’s duties; we are to be generous and hospitable if no angel ever enters our tent; we are to entertain strangers, though they may never turn out to be angels.

III. THE PRECEPT ENJOINS ON US BENEVOLENCE AND LARGENESS OF HEART. Men are too much accustomed to live with men of their own class, with men who read the same books, think the same thoughts, and live the same kind of life; they do not know men out of their circle, they do not receive the benefit which results from freshness of thought, and interchange of sentiment, and deeper and warmer feeling. (H. J. Boris.)Hospitality:

In hospitality these things are required: 1. That we do it frequently. One swallow makes not a spring. The receiving of

a stranger once makes not a hospitable man. We must make a daily use and occupation of it. It was the continual practice of Lot and Abraham, as may appear by their behaviour.

2. It must be willingly. We must not tarry till strangers offer themselves. We must pull them in, as Abraham and Lot did. We must constrain them, as Lydia did St. Paul and Silas.

3. Cheerfully without grudging (1   Peter 4:9 ), we must not repine at it, speak hardly of them when they be gone.

4. Meekly; not receive them after a stately and lord-like manner; but after a meek manner, as if we were rather beholden to them, than they to us.

They be the brethren of Christ, the sons of God; we are not worthy of such guests.

5. Abundantly; according to that ability wherewith God hath blessed us. If we have but a little, let them have a little, as the widow of Sarepta dealt with Elias. If we have a great portion of God’s blessings, let them taste of them.

6. We must do it perseveringly: be not weary of well doing. Hospitality is a good thing, be not weary of it. Let thy house be open to good men all the days of thy life. But alas, this is a hard doctrine, who can abide it; we are too much wedded to the world: yea, they that make a great show of Christianity, are ready to say with Nabal,” Shall I take my bread and my water, and my flesh, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be? “Oh forget not this duty. Here he means such strangers especially as are compelled to forsake their country for the gospel’s sake; but it is to be extended to all.

It is an excellent duty, and we have many spurs to prick us to it. 1. God requires it (Isaiah 58:7). 2. We have many ensamples for it. 3. We ourselves may be strangers, therefore do as ye would be done to. 4. The want of it hath been grievously punished, it was the overthrow of the

whole tribe ( 20:1-48.). 5. In receiving men that are strangers, we may receive angels. Preachers

which be God’s angels, nay, Christ Himself (Matthew 25:6). 6. It is gainful for this life, and that which is to come. (W. Jones, D. D.)

A gracious disposition unexpectedly rewardedI. ESPECIAL SEASONS ARE DIRECTIONS, AND CONSTRAINING MOTIVES

UNTO ESPECIAL DUTIES. And he who on such occasions will forget to receive strangers, will not long remember to retain anything of Christian religion.

II. OUR HEARTS ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED UNTO IN OCCASIONAL DUTIES, IF WE PRESERVE THEM NOT IN A CONTINUAL DISPOSITION TOWARDS THEM. If that be lost, no arguments will be prevalent to engage them unto present occasions.

III. THAT THE MIND OUGHT CONTINUALLY TO BE ON ITS WATCH, AND IN A GRACIOUS DISPOSITION TOWARDS SUCH DUTIES AS ARE ATTENDED WITH DIFFICULTIES AND CHARGE. Such as that here commanded to us, without which, we shall fail in what is required of us.

IV. EXAMPLES OF PRIVILEGES ANNEXED TO DUTIES, WHEREOF THE SCRIPTURE IS FULL, ARE GREAT MOTIVES AND INCENTIVES TO THE SAME, OR THE LIKE DUTIES.

V. FAITH WILL MAKE USE OF THE HIGHEST PRIVILEGES THAT EVER WERE ENJOYED ON THE PERFORMANCE OF DUTIES, TO ENCOURAGE UNTO OBEDIENCE, THOUGH IT EXPECTS NOT ANYTHING OF THE SAME KIND ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SAME DUTIES.

VI. WHEN MEN DESIGNING THAT WHICH IS GOOD, DO MORE GOOD THAN THEY INTENDED, SHALL OR MAY REAP MORE BENEFIT THEREBY THAN THEY EXPECTED. (John. Owen, D. D.)Kindness to stranger:

Even in later ages of the Church, there have been fine exemplifications, personal and public, of kindness to Christian strangers. Some of the most remarkable of these belong to the age of the Reformation. The heart warms towards Frankfort and Geneva, in the memory of the hospitable shelter which those venerable cities gave at that eventful epoch, to so many of our English and Scottish exiles. And not a few evangelical Protestants on the Continent of Europe now delight to extend their humble hospitality to British Christians whom an interest in “the common faith,” or even a less sacred motive, may have carried to their shores. (D. S. Patterson.)A genius for kindness:

“There is a man,” said his neighbour, speaking of a village carpenter, “who has done more good, I really believe, in this community than any other person who ever lived in it. He cannot talk very well in prayer-meetings, and he doesn’t very often try. He isn’t worth two thousand dollars, and it’s very little that he can put down on subscription papers for any good object. But a new family never moves into the village that he does not find them out, to give them a neighbourly welcome and offer any little service he can render. He is usually on the lookout to give strangers a seat in his pew at church. He is always ready to watch with a sick neighbour, and look after his affairs for him; and I’ve sometimes thought he and his wife keep house plants in winter just for the sake of being able to send little bouquets to invalids. He finds time for a pleasant word for every child he meets, and you’ll always see them climbing into his one-horse waggon when he has no other load. He really seems to have a genius for helping folks in all sorts of common ways, and it does me good every day just to meet him on the streets.” (Baxendale’s Anecdotes.)

Entertained angels unawaresStrangers may be angels

I. Strange PERSONS may often turn out to be “angels.” 1. It may be so with the “stranger” who enters our household. 2. It may be so with the “stranger” in our neighbourhood. 3. It may be so with the “stranger” in our church. 4. It may be so with the “stranger” in our country. Treat all men with

generousness and goodwill, and you may perhaps find angelic things within them.

II. Strange THINGS may often turn out to be “angels.” 1. A “strange” truth may turn out to be an “angel,” solving difficulties,

enfranchising the intellect, and making the horizon of the soul beam brightly with unearthly stars.

2. A “strange” trial may turn out to be an “angel.” Adversity, disease, bereavement, may prove blessings in disguise.

3. A “strange” charity may turn out to be an “angel.” “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Homilist.)

Angel visits:There is no reason for thinking that under the Christian dispensation angelic

beings ever assume a visible form, though we have nevertheless the comforting assurance that they are all “ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be the heirs of salvation.” But the visit might be like that of an angel, inasmuch as the visitor might bring rich intelligence as to the glorious things of the invisible world. What is there to prevent God from enabling one of our fellow-men to discourse to us so exquisitely on the deep things of our faith and the beautiful and harmonious things of heaven, that the effect shall be literally the same as though He had commissioned a cherub or a seraph to take human form and speak in human speech? We will give you as nearly as we may the scene which was likely to occur in the early days of the Church, and which, with due allowance made for change in circumstances, might occur in our own. We suppose a Christian family gathered round their fireside in times when the profession of Christianity exposed to persecution. They are themselves almost dreading the coming of the inquisitor, and they are startled by that knock at their door, fancying that it may proceed from some minister of cruelty; but there is only an aged wanderer who solicits admission, and the storm pleads for him as eloquently as his grey hairs. Shall he be refused?” It is not unlikely that he is

some poor victim whom the dogs of persecution are hunting down. If we admit him, he may be tracked to this house, and then, without being able to shield him, we shall be ruined ourselves.” But the master of that house is too staunch a character to be deterred from duty by the fear of consequences. Simply reminding his family of the precept--“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,” he opens his door, and bids the old man welcome in the name of the Lord; and the stranger, whilst partaking the proffered hospitality, enters into conversation, and, finding that they are Christians who have so kindly received him, seeks to recompense the kindness by discoursing on Christianity, and he pours forth all the treasures of his experience, and enlarges on the mysteries of redemption. He is one who has thought deeply and felt deeply; and as he dilates on the love of God in sending His own dear Son, and explains the blessed and marvellous manner in which the provisions of the gospel meet the wants of fallen creatures, or speaks thrillingly of “the exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” for which the trials of life are only a preparation, every eye is fast rivetted upon him, and his voice falls on every ear as some unearthly sound; but most sweet and most musical in its unearthliness. Is there any reason whatsoever why this might not occur, why it might not happen in any age of the Church, though more likely when persecution had caused the excellent of the earth, like the Master whom they served, to have not where to lay the head? And when the old man, wearied by his own high stretchings into mysteries and glories, had sunk to repose, would not the amazed and delighted family say, one to another, as the disciples who had journeyed to Emmaus, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? “Would not their feeling be as though they had received into their circle the inhabitant of a better world, known, not indeed by the wing of light and the eye of fire; but by wisdom drawn from gazing upon God; and would they not exclaim, “Oh! well hath the apostle followed up his precept, ‘Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,’ by saying, ‘for thereby some have entertained angels unawares’”? (H. Melvill, B. D.)Angels as strangers:

We often mistake the dispensations of God’s providence. They come to us as angels veiled in sadness, or in strange forms; we think they are enemies, and wrestle with them; in the darkness, the struggle goes on,--we want our way, it is not till they touch us and teach us their Divine character; it is not till the day begins to break, that we find we are in the presence of God’s messengers. We learn that we have wrestled with an angel, and then we seek to detain him, and

earnestly ask for a blessing. Sorrow comes unbidden, unwelcomed; it takes its place at our fireside, sits at our table; its presence casts a shadow on us; but when we allow it to commune with us, when it touches us, our life seems changed, our thoughts and affections are transfigured. Death comes over our threshold, into our home; and life is never more the same. It reads us some lesson out of the black-letter book of God’s providence. The lesson we bear in tears, but we never more forget it. “We confess that we are strangers and sojourners here.” We begin to think of leaving this tent. “We declare plainly that we seek a better country.” Death, so dreaded by us, acts in his ministrations only as an angel, who takes our loved ones into the everlasting home of the heavens. (H. J. Bevis.)Hospitality rewarded

Jupiter and Mercury once visited a village, and, disguised in human form, sought entertainment, but in vain, till they came to the thatched cottage of the aged Baucis and Philemon. Before the strangers was spread the best the place afforded, with careful attention. The unwasted wine revealed to them the gods to whom they would have sacrificed. “This inhospitable village shall pay the penalty of its impiety. You shall be free. Come with us to the top of yonder hill,” said the gods. They obeyed, and beheld the country around sink into a lake, while their own house grew into a magnificent temple, in which they served as priests until transformed together. (New Cyclopedia of Illustrations.)Entertaining a prince unawares:

During the Prince of Wales’s stay at Torquay he has walked or driven to many of the numerous points of beauty or interest with which the coast abounds. It is related that on Friday the Prince landed at Babbicombe Bay, and after exploring its charms, in company with Captain Stephcnson and Lord Hastings, the trio betook themselves to an adjacent tea garden, and ordered refreshment. The establishment, however, is chiefly frequented by visitors who bring their own provisions, and was unprovided with any but very homely fare. A lady who was taking tea with friends in an adjoining arbour, overheard the colloquy to which the request gave rise, and courteously placed at the disposal of the gentlemen a portion of her provisions, including, of course, Devonshire cream, tea and cakes. The offer was accepted, and, the lady’s creature comforts having been freely partaken of, the recipients, the Prince especially, were warm in their acknowledgments of this display of courtesy to strangers. It was not until after

they had departed that the lady became aware that she had entertained a prince unawares. (Western Times.)

Verse 3Hebrews 13:3

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with themSympathy

Reverence is the spirit of the Christian towards that which is above him, and sympathy is his spirit towards that which is about him.That which is above is summed up in God; that which is about us is summed up in man. We speak of sympathy as a feeling for others, where it is in the fullest sense of the phrase a feeling with others. Sympathy is not from without, not from above, as of one who looks afar off upon some object which moves his pity, but it is from within, and reaches to our whole being. He who really sympathises has in the true language of the heart entered into the feelings of another and made them his own. That which moves him belongs not to a stranger but to himself; he has mastered so far the secret of a true communion of life. And then, for the most part, and very naturally, we understand by sympathy a fellowship in suffering. We are most conscious of our need in moments of sorrow, and in such moments we can most recognise how much we owe to those who help us. But sympathy does not find scope in suffering only or even chiefly. It is co-extensive with human emotion and human experience. No doubt the service of sympathy costs us something. We must bear and feel the burden which we remove. The wonders of Christ’s infinite compassion were indeed triumphs of human love rather than of Divine authority, and as we study them we dimly discern with something of trembling awe what is meant by “the power of His resurrection” and “the fellowship of His sufferings”; how it is through pain and seeming loss and death that we gain, in Him, for others and for ourselves, the blessings of life. The service of sympathy does cost us something, but it brings abundant compensation. St. Paul has told us the secret of his unmatched influence: “I became all things to all men.” His influence flowed, that is, from his sympathy, and the transformation wrought in him by sympathy was a reality and not a superficial imitation. It is always so. Just as the great poet lives in the characters which he creates, so the great teacher makes himself the true fellow of his scholars; he regards things with their eyes, he reflects on them with their thoughts; he offers his lessons to them in the form which answers to their

condition; he wins to them a larger knowledge because he enables them to see how the new grows from the old, guards their peculiar treasures, and makes these also tributary to the interpretation of his messages. As it is with the great teacher, so it is with the great leader. He who sways men must be one with them, however far removed by his personal gifts. For sympathy is not the communion of like with like, but the power of uniting things different in the embrace of a greater life. Sympathy, therefore, preserves these small differences answering to our individuality, on which the beauty of the whole order of things depends. It does not only give; it receives. He who enters into the feelings of others becomes partaker of their energy. It does not only offer; it claims. He who is seen to sacrifice himself freely for the service of another, can justly demand in return a service corresponding to his own. And both aspects of its working must be observed carefully. Till we have called out the response of action we have not attained the object of our efforts; till we have sunk ourselves in those we wish to help, we have not measured the full extent of our power, for all experience tends to show that self-surrender is the gauge of power. It cannot be otherwise, for self-surrender is the gauge of faith. It is the soul’s answer to the voice which calls us to become fellow-workers with God. That voice too often is unheard, and “when we consider our worst failures and disappointments, we must confess that words which are constantly on our lips express most truly how they have been brought to pass. Even in our highest purposes “we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts,” we have pursued our ends in our own manner, we have fashioned them according to our own fancies, we have placed our own things and not the things of others in the forefront, we have not used the way of sympathy. So we have gained no entrance to the hearts of those whom we sought, and we have been cast down by the conviction of our weakness. Perhaps during that conviction we have recognised what we needed and found encouragement. For sympathy, which is the source of influence, is also the source of strength. In isolation there can be no experience of the highest human forces. It is through contact with our fellows that we feel the majesty of truth and righteousness. As we move among men, we see that our own best thoughts are shared by others, and we are invigorated by their silent support. Thus common testimony tells us that God is on our side. He has not left us desolate. He Himself works among us by His gifts, and they who have them are said to be ministers of His loving wisdom, trusting not to their own power but to His, confident not in their own foresight but in His sovereign will. So it is that as soon as we see this

social destination of our several endowments, sympathy enriches us with the manifold resources of all through whom God is working. We draw strength from the very burdens which we have to bear. (Bp. Westcott.)Christian sympathy:

There are, as we think, two very different, but both highly important principles here asserted: the principle of fellowship, and the principle of forethought. That of fellowship, for we are to feel as though bound with them in bonds: that of forethought, for we are to remember that we ourselves are also in the body, and therefore exposed to the adversities which claim our sympathy in others. Or to expound our text by the motive rather than the principle it puts forth, there are here two reasons or inducements suggested by the apostle, why Christians should be earnest in works of Christian love; the one is derived from their intimate connection with the suffering, the other from their own liability to similar visitations.

I.St. Paul may here be said to go even beyond what he has laid down in

Romans 12:15. He requires something more than sympathy as commonly understood. One man is said to sympathise with another, who is pained when and because theft other is pained: and sympathy, as thus understood, is little more than pity or commiseration. But to suffer with another, which is actually to sympathise, goes much beyond the weeping with another; it is making the griefs of that other mine own, so that the wound is in my heart as well as in his. The members of one family actually sympathise and suffer themselves, when death has come in and snatched away one from their circle; the loss is a common loss, attecting all equally, and the sorrow of each is literally the sorrow of every other. According to the Scriptural idea Christians constitute but one body, the mystical body of Christ; and if this be the application of the acknowledged principle, that “if one member suffer all the members suffer with it,” it follows that every Christian, in the measure which he has attained towards perfection, would seem to bear in his own person the very sufferings, and to receive in his own person the very blessings allotted to those who have like precious faith with himself. And when we think how deficient we are even in such sympathy as is generally understood by the world, and which would result from universal brotherhood, we may well be staggered at finding, that the Christian standard is yet vastly higher, and that universal brotherhood would be but a stage towards universal membership. But what an image does it give us of the condition of the world, to suppose all men

actuated by the consciousness of being members one of another. Beyond nature, we confess it, but not beyond grace; and the Christian is not to be content, until in relieving the distressed lie can feel that he acts on the great principle of membership. He must see to it, that he has part in the bearing, as well as in the relieving the calamity. His relieving is to be the result of his bearing; he is to relieve, that is, as one who is relieving himself, with all that activity and all that perseverance which our own personal interests are sure to elicit.

II.St.Paul descends to a lower and yet not wholly different ground: he

descends from Christian membership, and takes his position on that of our own exposure to misfortunes.

“As being yourselves also in the body!” What an amount of motive is gathered into these simple words! It has been one of the natural, and, we might almost say, necessary consequences on the combination of men into societies, presenting almost every possible variety of condition and circumstances, that there has been a comparative losing sight of the equal liability of all, to the several ills to which flesh is heir.

It is very difficult not to fancy that the man of large ancestral revenues has an exemption from the contingencies and changes of want, which beset the poor peasant that tills one of its fields.

It might sound to him as a threat, whether of ignorance or insult, that it should thus be implied, that notwithstanding all his state, and all his abundance, he might come to want the morsel which we ask him to bestow. And, of course, it does need a very thorough and practical recognition of the truth, that “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” to be able to put aside all the appearances of security and independence, which hoarded wealth furnishes, and to view in every man, whatsoever his circumstances, a pensioner on the bounty of that omnipotent Parent, who “openeth His hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing.” I would rather have the security against want, which the meanest of our villagers enjoys, whose daily bread is the subject of daily prayer and daily toil, than that of the foremost of our capitalists, who in any way gives indulgence to the sentiment of the rich man in the parable; “Soul, thou hast goods laid up for many years.” The one, indeed, has a security--the security of a prayerful dependence on God; whereas the other has no security whatever, but lies exposed to the peril of being punished for presumption. And it matters not

to us, what may be the worhtly circumstances of any, nor how far they may seem to remove him from liability to poverty. If he be a man, he may come to be a starving man; and that, too, without any of those explicable occurrences and reverses, which seem to mark God’s special interference to bring round an unlooked-for catastrophe. There ought, therefore, to be to him as much cogency as to the man whose property seems jeopardised, in the motive of being himself in the body, when it is for the relief of the actually destitute that we appeal to his bounty. And this is, perhaps, the only case in which there is even the appearance of exemption from liability to the misfortunes with which we see others oppressed. It cannot be said that any one form of sorrow is appropriated to this class of men, and warded off from that; all are accessible through the same channels, and all are capable of the same ills. And is there not in consequence the greatest cogency, whosoever be the party addressed and whatsoever the affliction which asks to be remembered, in the motive of being in the body? It is the enlisting of selfishness on the side of the afflicted, and calling on us to be merciful if we would have mercy ourselves. Inexpressibly bitter would it be if living to be oppressed and deserted ourselves and to ask in vain for succour and for sympathy, we should have to remember how in our own sunshine we had cared nothing for those over whom darkness had gathered, and to feel that we were but reaping the harvest of which our own want of charity had sown all the seeds. (H. Melvill, B. D.)The fellow of suffering:

We feel our own burdens distinctly enough and our own limitations and sorrows. Now if we felt those of other people a tenth part as distinctly, we could do almost anything with them and for them. To Christ other people were real: just as real as He. God was interested in men because to Him they were lovable. “God so loved the world”; that was where redemption began. And it was not a general, diffusive kind of thing, His love was not. It was not like some great sea of translucent fog which sometimes inundates our city of a warm morning, which only has a kind of general reference to everything and no particular reference to anything. His love was rather like a sunbeam, which drops down ninety million miles upon one specific grass-blade, into one particular bird’s eye. People, indeed, are interesting as soon as we get near enough to them to feel that they are people, not things, and as soon as we get far enough into the secret of their life to discover its workings, its difficulties, its disappointments, its ambitions, its defeats, its penitences, its remorses. I believe we would love everybody we came

near to if we realised what a hard time they are having. No two people would ever quarrel if they could be each other for a little while. “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” Then, besides that, if we could feel the sorrow and suffering that is in a man’s life, no matter how wicked or degraded he might be, his degradation would be no barrier to kindly regard for him. If we came near enough to a bad man’s history to understand it, to see how unfortunate influences tell upon him, what susceptibilities to evil were in him, entirely independent of any choice of his own in the matter, we should find that circumstances were what made a large:part of the mischief, and that the poor fellow has had just as hard and sad a time in keeping from being worse than he is, as we have had in keeping from being worse than we are. We are sometimes surprised that Christ, who as we are told “ knew what was in man,” nevertheless was able to love man, to love all men. But that was exactly the reason why He was able. Tragedy is all about us--a good deal more tragedy than comedy; and any life becomes inter-resting as soon as, with a key wrought out of love, you unlock it and begin so to be yourself closeted on the inside of it as to feel yourself somehow involved in it, and all its difficulties to be your difficulties, and all its weaknesses and sins even to be so taken upon yourself that you commence to feel the burden of them as your burden. That is what Christ did. That is the meaning of His life; that is the distinctive quality in His redemptive work. He carried people. By becoming like them He helped them to become like Him. And as Christ can do this for each of us, because in His loving way He so perfectly understands all the ins and outs of each of us, so we, in order to make our own lives redemptive in another’s behalf, have to make a distinct and affectionate problem of his life, get on to the interior side of it, discover the impulses that play in it, the history that lies back of it, the circumstances that encompass and dominate it. These things quicken in interest as we go on. If you have commenced to read a book, and some one says to you, “Do you like it?” you will very probably answer, “I can hardly say, for I have not yet got fairly into it.” So the characters and lives of people only then begin to be interesting, when we have fairly got into them. They are then sure to be of interest, even when we treat them merely as problems to be mentally solved; how much more when we bring to them a heart fraught with personal regard and Christian sympathy. It is in this way, then, that people must be saved and lifted. I do not believe we are going to solve the problem of city and country evangelisation till we get over lumping

people. When, at this season of the year, you look up into the sky of an evening, you discern a nebulous belt of light, an indiscriminate mass of stars, lying up and down the sky like a vast white cosmic rainbow. Now, telescopes, as they are directed to that great nebulae, are showing themselves competent to crumble up that mass of stellar uncertainty into myriads of little diamond-like stellar individualities, and as, year by year, the penetrating powers of telescopes are increased, this crumbling, individualising process goes steadily on, so that now we do not any longer think of the Milky Way as a mass of star stuff, but as a host of brilliant worlds, each as distinct from the rest, and as complete in itself as our own great sun, which is indeed thought to be one single flaming member of that superb host. Now, what lenses of enhanced power do for the human eye in the way of splitting up a world of filmy splendour into keen-edged points of individual light and lustre, the same thing love does for human discernment when exercised upon the mass of humanity by which, in a great city, we are environed. It crumbles the mass up into glittering individualities, each a little distinct personal world all in himself. When the sun melts the snow in the spring it tackles each little snow crystal by itself. Each sunbeam picks out its own crystal and turns it into a tear, and so is able to do a great deal in its little way and saves itself the embarrassment and weariness of thinking how many flakes there are that it can never reach; and the snow goes off. How much better that is than it would be for the sunbeams to spend all their time holding conventions in order to devise means for melting the masses of snow. The next thing, therefore, for you and me to do, is to go into the Snow-bank, if we have not already done so, and pick out our particular snow crystal, and commence melting it. (C. H.Parkhurst, D. D.)Sympathy not scared by suffering

Sympathy for each other in suffering is not confined to mankind. “There is one trait,” says Mr. Jesse, “in the character of rooks, which is, I believe, peculiar to that sort of bird, and which does them no little credit. It is the distress which they exhibit when one of them has been killed or wounded by a gun while they have been feeding in a field or flying over it. Instead of being scared away by the report of the gun, leaving their wounded or dead companion to his fate, they show the greatest anxiety or sympathy for him, uttering cries of distress, and plainly proving that they wish to render him assistance, by hovering over him, or sometimes making a dart from the air close up to him, apparently to try and find out the reason why he did not follow them

‘While circling round and round,

They call their lifeless comrade from the ground.’If he is wounded, and can flutter along the ground, the rooks appear to animate

him to make fresh exertions by incessant cries, flying a little distance before him, and calling to him to follow them.” (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.)Remembering the needs of others:

In one of Dickens’s letters referring to a notice of Tom Hood’s book which he had written for the Examiner, he says: “Rather poor, but I have not said so, because Hood is poor too, and ill besides.” (H. O. Mackey.)Value of sympathy:

Every man rejoices twice when he has a partner of his joy; a friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety; but he swells my joy and makes it double. For so two channels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets, and make it fordable and apt to be drunk up by the first revels of the Syrian Star; but two torches do not divide but increase the flame; and though my tears are the sooner dried up, when they run on my friend’s cheeks in the furrows of compassion, yet when my flame hath killed his lamp, we unite the glories and make them radiant, like the golden candlesticks that burn before the throne of God, because they shine by numbers, by unions, and confederations of light and joy. (Bp. Taylor.)Nature of sympathy:

It is by sympathy we enter into the concerns of ethers, that we are moved as they are moved, and are never suffered to be indifferent spectators of almost anything which men can do or suffer. For sympathy may be considered as a sort of substitution, by which we are put into the place of another man, and affected in many respects as he is affected. (E. Burke.)Practical sympathy:

We must not make too much of sympathy, as mere feeling … We praise feeling and praise its possessor. But feeling is only a sickly exotic in itself--a passive quality, having in it nothing moral, no temptation, and no victory. A man is no more a good man for having feeling, than he is for having a delicate ear for music, or a far-seeing optic nerve. The Son of Man had feeling--He could be “touched.” The tear would start from His eyes at the sight of human sorrow. But that sympathy was no exotic in His soul, beautiful to look at, too delicate for use. Feeling with Him led to this, “He went about doing good.” Sympathy with Him was this, “Grace to help in time of need.” (F. W. Robertson.)Helpful sympathy self-remunerative:

It is said of the saintly George Herbert, the quaint old English church poet, that once in a walk to Salisbury, to join a musical party, he saw a poor man with a poorer horse that was fallen under his load. They were both in distress and needed present help, which Mr. Herbert perceiving, put off his canonical coat, and helped the poor man to unload, and afterwards load his horse. The poor man blessed him for it and he blessed the poor man, and was so like the Good Samaritan, that he gave him money to refresh both himself and his horse. Thus he left the poor man; and at his coming to his musical friends at Salisbury, they began to wonder that Mr. Herbert, who used to be trim and clean, so soiled and discomposed. But he told them the occasion; and when one of the company told him “he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employment,” his answer was, “that the thought of what he had done would prove music to him at midnight, and that the omission of it would have upbraided and made discord in his conscience whensoever he should pass by that place; for if I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, I am sure that I am bound, so far as it is in my power, to practise what I pray for; and let me tell you, I would not willingly pass one day of my life without comforting a sad soul, or showing mercy, and bless God for this occasion.” Oh, how many might have anxious thoughts which often infest their midnight hours changed into sweet music, if they would only be more frequently seen with full hands and friendly words in the abodes of poverty and suffering! These are the places in which to attune one’s conscience to midnight harmonies.

Verse 4Hebrews 13:4

Marriage is honourableMarriage:

It is not to be denied that marriage hath its proper inconveniences.There are peculiar cares and hindrances belonging to it. For the new relations that are acquired by it, as those of husband and wife, father and mother, master and mistress, are attended with peculiar crosses and troubles. But then it is to be considered that there is no condition of life whatsoever without inconveniences, and particularly celibacy is a great trouble of itself; it is comfortless and unarmed, exposed to hazards, and beset with dangerous temptations. But the state of wedlock, if it be wisely entered into, hath a natural tendency to a happy way of living, as it is conducing to order and government, to industry and diligence, to frugality, to stability, and to a care for futurity. It is best for the good of mankind,

for the uses of human life, for the interest of the universe, and the welfare of Christian societies. But there have been always some in the world that have remonstrated against this state of life, and these are of two sorts--the religious and the witty; that is, those who would be thought to be such. Saturnius, a professed gnostic, held that marriage was of the devil, as Iremeus relates, and most of that sect cried it down as a cursed and diabolical thing. The Marcionites, the Montanists, and the Manicheans declared it to be unlawful. The Hierachites held that marriage excluded from heaven, and they admitted none but single persons into their communion. But here by the way we are to note, that the gnostics and some others, who were very fierce against marrying, practised promiscuous lust. It is an honour then to this state that it is doomed by such. Some make use of the Holy Scripture to patronise this cause; and the chief place which they allege is 1   Corinthians 7:1 . We are to know, then, that when the apostle lived the times were perilous, and persecution was the allotment of the faithful Christians; and therefore that was an unfit season for embracing a conjugal life. We see then that the authority of the apostle is made use of to no purpose, because it is wholly misunderstood. Of which we cannot but be convinced, when we find in this very chapter a positive license given to the Christians to change their condition, if they saw occasion for it, and were willing to venture on the dangers which attended matrimony. “But if thou marry,” saith he, “thou hast not sinned” (verse 28). There is no absolute unlawfulness in doing so. And he condemned those heretics that taught otherwise, forbidding to marry (1   Timothy 4:3 ). But the witty people are another sort of men, that affect to rally upon marriage; and that they may have a full shock at it, they except against the other sex itself.

The Jewish Rabbins think themselves great wits in jeering the sex for their restless tongues and false tears, as we frequently find in their writings. Nay, they are so virulent as to publish to the world, that the honestest woman on earth is a witch, and given to enchantment and sorcery. The Arabians vote all married persons to be fools in that proverb of theirs, “If all men were wise” (that is, if they would abstain from marriage) “the world would soon be at an end.” Even some men of gravity cannot abstain from inveighing against the sex, as such Cato often said that “if the world was without women, the gods would come down and converse with men; but whilst those are here, these will never visit us.” Yea, Chrysostom, the celebrated father of the Greek Church, the famous pulpit orator, made a sermon in the dispraise of all women, and tells us that matrimony in its

own nature is a sin, only by Divine permission it is excusable. In brief, he is reckoned the wittiest man that is most dexterous in defaming of women, though at the same time he defames himself. Whatever prejudiced, fanciful men may suggest, we are sure the apostle is in the right, and utters an incontestible truth, “Marriage is honourable in all.” The married state is not only lawful, but noble, appointed by God, and of Divine institution. It was first ordained in Paradise, in the state of innocency (Genesis 2:18). This gives repute and authority to wedlock, and renders it commendable. And it hath been always esteemed as such by those who have a reverence for God’s ordinance. It is observable that our Saviour Himself honoured marriage with His first miracle, gracing the solemnity by turning water into wine. Here I may take notice of the high esteem some nations have had of a married life, and how concerned they were that men should not always be single. Among the Lacedemonians there were actions brought against men for not marrying, and for marrying late; and those that lived unmarried were infamous among that people by the law. There were penalties among the Romans inflicted on those that refused to marry after such a term of years, as Tacitus and the Code testify. Every one is bound to embrace matrimony at twenty-five years of age by the Alcoran. The Tartars think this so good and excellent a thing, that they believe their god Matagai hath a wife and children. And if their sons and daughters die before they are at age, they celebrate a marriage between parties thus deceased, that they may be man and wife in the other world. Though this is very gross indeed, and is a sign they are unacquainted with what our Saviour said, “In heaven they neither marry, nor are given in marriage”; yet it shows what respect and esteem these people have for the state of wedlock, and how congruous it is to the natural reason and sentiments of mankind.

1. Marriage must be with great deliberation. There is no undertaking of man’s life that doth more require freedom of thought and choice than this doth. Plato would have no man marry before thirty, nor Aristotle before thirty-five years of age, designing thereby not peremptorily to confine persons to that computation, but to warn them against a precipitant changing of their state, and to put them in mind of acting very cautiously in this affair. Nor should they only weigh and consider the matter themselves, but apply to their friends, but especially their parents, for their advice and counsel.

2. Marry not merely for money or estate. This is the prevailing fault of men, as well as women, they court the estate rather than the person who hath it;

they may be said to wed the lands and money, not the possessor. A wife is put to sale, and marriage is a mere bargain.

3. Let not the man marry the woman merely for beauty, or finery, for feature, for dress, which latter is the body’s artificial beauty.

4. Marry not a woman merely on the account of her wit, learning, or parts. Arts and sciences are not the proper talent of that sex.

5. Though you are not to marry merely for money, beauty, or wit, yet never marry one that is poor, or deformed, or a fool. A single life with indigency may be endured, but that and wedlock together are a double misery. If you be not able with your own estate and way of living to maintain a wife, never take one that hath none. Again, choose not one whose deformity is very conspicuous and remarkable, unless some extraordinary qualities and perfections compound for it, lest you should be tempted afterwards to change the object of your sight, and look upon others as more acceptable. Wherefore make choice of one who hath competent comeliness, or who by modesty mends her countenance, and gives it a beauty by blushes. Mate such a one as we know is mistress of those accomplishments and graces which are not liable to be impaired by any accidents whatsoever, that so we may ever find that in her which deserves our love. Lastly, methinks that there should be no need of advising a man or woman not to marry one that is noted for folly and weakness, for this too plainly shows that they themselves are liable to the same imputation.

6. Above all things make choice of a virtuous person, one that fears God, one whose mind is endued with a deep sense of religion, and whose conversation is regular and upright. All the aforesaid qualifications must give place to this, and without this they are mean and inconsiderable, and of no real value.

7. Next to religion good nature is to be prized most. This contains in it a peaceable and quiet temper, a sweet disposition, an obliging and winning carriage, free from all extravagant passion, wrath, and bitterness. Else a man, in a worse sense than the Duke of Venice, marries the Adriatic, is espoused to waves and storms.

8. Be careful to marry one suitable to you; suitable in age, birth, and humour. Such a one will be truly a meet-help.

9. Be well satisfied of one another’s love, chastity, and faithfulness, and increase and nourish them by all means. A wife, as Sir Thomas Overbury

rightly saith, is an abbreviature of all the rest of the sex: to her husband she must be (as Eve was) all the world of womankind.

10. Let it never be known which of them is superior. Always divide and share your power.

11. Begin and proceed in the conjugal state with prayer and great devotion, and all acts of religion and piety. (J. Edwards, D. D.)

Marriage honourableI. DIVINE INSTITUTION IS SUFFICIENT TO RENDER ANY STATE OR

CONDITION OF LIFE HONOURABLE. II. THE MORE USEFUL ANY STATE OF LIFE IS, THE MORE HONOURABLE

IT IS. The honour of marriage arises much from its usefulness. III. THAT WHICH IS HONOURABLE BY DIVINE INSTITUTION, AND USEFUL

IN ITS OWN NATURE, MAY BE ABUSED AND RENDERED VILE BY THE MISCARRIAGES OF MEN as marriage may be.

IV. IT IS A BOLD USURPATION OF AUTHORITY OVER THE CONSCIENCES OF MEN, AND A CONTEMPT OF THE AUTHORITY OF GOD, TO FORBID THAT STATE UNTO ANY, WHICH GOD HATH DECLARED HONOURABLE AMONG ALL.

V. MEANS FOR PURITY AND CHASTITY, NOT ORDAINED, BLESSED, NOR SANCTIFIED UNTO THAT END, WILL PROVE FURTHERANCES OF IMPURITY AND UNCLEANNESS, OR OF WORSE EVILS.

VI. The state of marriage being honourable in the sight of God Himself, IT IS THE DUTY OF THEM THAT ENTER THEREUNTO DULY TO CONSIDER HOW THEY MAY APPROVE THEIR CONSCIENCES UNTO GOD IN WHAT THEY DO.

VII. IN THE STATE OF MARRIAGE THERE IS REQUIRED OF MEN A DUE CONSIDERATION OF THEIR CALL UNTO IT, OF THEIR ENDS IN IT, THAT THEY ARE THOSE OF GOD’S APPOINTMENT prayer for, and expectation of His blessing on it; reverence of Him as the great witness of the marriage covenant; with wisdom to undergo the trials and temptations inseparable from this state of life.

VIII. WHATEVER LIGHT THOUGHTS MEN MAY HAVE OF SIN, OF ANY SIN, THE JUDGMENT OF GOD CONCERNING ALL SIN, WHICH IS ACCORDING TO TRUTH, MUST STAND FOR EVER. TO have slight thoughts of sin will prove no relief unto sinners.

IX. FORNICATION AND ADULTERY ARE SINS IN THEIR OWN NATURE, DESERVING ETERNAL DAMNATION. If the due wages of all sin be death, much more is it so of so great abomination.

X. ALL OCCASIONS OF, ALL TEMPTATIONS LEADING UNTO THESE SINS, ARE TO BE AVOIDED, AS WE TAKE CARE OF OUR SOULS. (Joliet Owen, D. D.)

Whoremongers and adulterersWhoremongers and adulterers

I. WHO ARE COMPREHENDED UNDER THIS CHARACTER. Every person will at once perceive that all who live in common fornication, or who defile the marriage-bed, are evidently comprehended in this description. Let those then tremble, and know that this is their true state and name, who, though they disdain the open and more notorious commerce, yet secretly beguile the innocent and unwary, and become the agents of Satan in the ruin of others. Neither let those deceive themselves who, though they may not traverse the ranges of unbounded lust, yet keep up a cursed league with some particular person with whom they live in a state of fornication or adultery; let them not flatter themselves with an idea that this is a small matter, or shelter themselves under the fashion or the opinion of the times; God is not ruled by caprice or fashion, nor does His eternal standard of rectitude and good vary with human desires or modes of action.

II. THE TESTIMONY OF THE WORD OF GOD AGAINST THIS SIN. 1. God has directly and expressly forbidden it in His Divine law. “Thou shalt

not commit adultery” is the seventh of those commandments which stand in the sacred decalogue, as the injunctions of God to mankind. And that every avenue to this sin may be stopped, and His holy displeasure against it plainly testified, He has again enforced it by taking a part of it into the tenth commandment: “Thou shalt not so much as covet thy neighbour’s wife.” Nor is this law any matter of Jewish obligation only, but equally incumbent upon us; for our Lord Himself in Matthew 5:1-48. enjoins this command in a very peculiar manner, and through the whole of the New Testament it is abundantly charged and enforced (1   Corinthians 6:9 ; 1   Thessalonians 4:2-8 ; Ephesians 4:19-20; Ephesians 5:3-5).

2. We may learn God’s hatred and displeasure against these sins from the odious and alarming description given of them in the Scriptures. The author of the Book of Proverbs is peculiarly diligent in endeavouring to lay before the thoughtless sinner the snares and delusive temptations which

draw men into these evils, as well as the miserable and fatal consequences which attend them. The sixth and seventh chapters are almost entirely taken up with this subject, and part of the second and ninth is employed to the same purpose. Now we must remember that it is the intention of the sacred writers in setting these things thus before us to imprint the same odious image of them on our hearts, that we may know their nature, and flee their practice. Happy if it might but thus succeed!

3. I shall, in the next place, call your attention to the dreadful threatenings which the Word of God denounces against impure sinners. This sin is declared in the Scriptures as the cause of God’s controversy with nations and with individuals (Hosea 4:1-3). And Jeremiah (chap. 5.) represents God as ready to give His people up, and to forbid His prophets to reprove them any more. His mercy and forgiveness seem to put, as it were, to a stand. And in 1   Corinthians 3:1-23 ., when the apostle had represented this sin as a defilement of the body, which is the Temple of God, he adds this awful word, “If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy, for the temple of God is (or ought to be) holy,” and not made a nest of unclean lusts. St. John, in the Book of the Revelation, declares the doom of whoremongers to be with the rest of notorious sinners, in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. How impiously bold then are those sinners who dare all these terrors for the gratification of a base lust! To such as have been entangled with this sin, and have a real desire to be delivered from it (as well as to those who are anxious to secure their modesty and virtue), I would suggest a few considerations.

Verse 5Hebrews 13:5

Let your conversation be without covetousnessCovetousness

I.Covetousness in life SHOULD BE AVOIDED.

1. Unnatural. 2. Immoral. 3. Pernicious.

II. Covetousness in life INTERFERES WITH CONTENTMENT. It is in the heart like the tide in the sea, allowing no rest.

III. Covetousness in life is INCONSISTENT WITH CONFIDENCE IN GOD. (Homilist.)The heinousness of covetousness

1. It is a deceiving sin. It blinds the understanding and corrupts the judgment in a main point of happiness; for the covetous man maketh “ gold his hope, and fine gold his confidence” (Job 31:24).

2. It is an insatiable sin (Ecclesiastes 5:10). In this respect covetousness is like a dropsy which increaseth thirst by much drinking; and like a fire which by addition of fuel is the more fierce. The desire of a covetous man ariseth from abundance; and in that respect is unnatural; for nature is satisfied with sufficiency. Hunger and thirst cease when a man hath eaten and drunk that which is sufficient.

3. It is a galling sin. It works a continual vexation, and takes away all the comforts of this life (1   Timothy 6:10 ). There is a threefold woe that accompanieth covetousness.

4. It is an ensnaring sin (1   Timothy 6:9 ). Wealth as it is a bait to allure men to snap thereat, so it is a snare fast to hold them, and a hook to pull them down to perdition (Mark 10:23; Luke 14:18-19). It keeps many from the Word, yea, it steals away the heart of those that come to the Ezekiel 33:31).

5. It is a mother sin (1   Timothy 6:10 ). Fitly therefore doth the prophet thus style it evil covetousness (Habakkuk 2:9). There is no evil which a covetous man will forbear. It is a root of impiety. It draws the heart from God: so as there can be no true love nor fear of God in a covetous heart. For gain he will profane the Sabbath. It makes inferiors purloin from their superiors, and superiors to neglect their inferiors. It is a cause of much rebellion, of many treasons, murders, thefts, deceit, lying, false witness, and what not!

6. It is a growing sin. The longer men live in the world the more covetous they use to be after the world. Old men are commonly the most covetous. Herein it differeth from other violent sins, which by age abate in their violence.

7. It is a devouring sin (Matthew 13:22).

8. Iris a crying sin. The cries of them which are oppressed by covetous persons enter into the ears of the Lord. Hereupon an apostle bids them weep and howl (James 5:1). Covetousness causeth a curse from man and God. “He that withholdeth corn the people shall curse him.” As for

God’s curse, “the wrath of God cometh upon men because of these things” Ephesians 5:5-6). The apostle reckoneth covetous Persons among those that shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1   Corinthians 6:10 ). (W. Gouge.)Remedies against covetousness:

For preventing or redressing covetousness, these rules following are to be observed.

1. The judgment must rightly be informed in these two points. Many learned men want this point of understanding. It is the blindness of a

man’s mind that maketh him place a kind of happiness in the things of this world. If therefore we shall be rightly instructed, that happiness consisteth in matters of another kind than this world affords; surely their immoderate desire of riches could not be but much modified. He that said, “There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us” (Psalms 4:6), well discerned the difference betwixt earthly and heavenly blessings. So did he who said, “Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death” Proverbs 11:4).

2. The will and heart of man must follow the judgment well informed, and raise themselves up to that sphere where true happiness resteth Colossians 3:2). This will keep the heart from doting on things below. A beast which is feeding in fresh pasture will not stray into a barren heath; much less will an understanding man that finds the sweetness of heavenly blessings dote upon earthly trash (Philippians 3:8).

3. A man’s confidence must be placed on God and His providence. God’s providence is an overflowing and everflowing fountain. The richest treasures of men may be exhausted; God’s cannot be. Be therefore fully resolved of this, that “ God will provide” (Genesis 22:8). This casting of our care on God’s providence is much pressed in Scripture, as Psalms 55:22; 1   Peter 5:7 ; Matthew 6:25-26), &c. By experience we see how children depend on their parents’ providence; should not we much more on our heavenly Father?

4. Our appetite or desire of riches must be moderate (Proverbs 30:8; Matthew 6:11). Be content with that portion which God gives thee, and be

persuaded it is best for thee (Philippians 4:11). Contentedness and covetousness are directly opposite as light and darkness.

5. We must pray against covetousness (Psalms 119:36). (W. Gouge.)A vile weed and a fair flower:

Is it not humiliating that the best of Christians should need to be cautioned against the worst of sins? May the consecrated become covetous? Is it possible that the regenerate may drivel into misers? Alas, what perils surround us, what tendencies are within us I It appears from our text that the children of God need also to be exhorted to cherish that most simple and natural of virtues--contentment. One would think that, at least in some instances, they would have this good thing as a matter of course. Among our villagers we have met with persons so well satisfied with their lowly lot that they would not cross the sea to gain an empire. Yet their contentment has sprung up wild as the daisies and buttercups of their own meadows, for they have not been acquainted with the blessed hope which makes trials light to bear. Do Christians, then, need to be admonished with precepts, and stimulated with promises, to make them yield the commonplace virtues of life? Do their fields refuse to grow “the herb called heartsease,” which simple folk have gathered unsown from their little garden-plots?

I. I shall have to say a little about COVETOUSNESS. We are told that our conversation is to be “without covetousness.” The term “conversation” includes, as you know, the whole of our lives.

1. Taking the first meaning of conversation, namely, talk, we ought not in our words to be on the side of those who grip for wealth or growl for wage, who grasp for power or grind the poor. We ought not in our talk to take part with the churl and the illiberal.

2. But our conversation has to do with our actions as well as our words. The sugar of words is sickening if it be not attended with the honey of deeds. Let our whole life in our dealings with our fellow-men be moved by liberal principles, and enriched with a generous spirit.

3. But this will not do unless the word “conversation” takes in our desires, our projects, our plans, our thoughts. We must be without covetousness within, for if that vice reigns in the soul it is sure to rule in the life. Our prayer should be that of David, “Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.” It is so very easy a thing to be covetous, that no class of society is free from it. A man may be very poor and covetous

withal, and a man may be exceedingly rich and still may think that he is not half rich enough. It is not possible to satisfy the greedy. Covetousness has many ways of manifesting itself; and the text does not warn us against one of those ways, but against them all.

II. As there is a vice to be shunned so there is a virtue to be sought. The theme is more pleasing now that we speak upon CONTENTMENT. “Be content with such things as ye have.” It is, after all, no very great virtue if we should attain it: the more pity, therefore, if we should miss it. The old moralists constantly twit us with the fact that we may have the necessaries of life upon very easy terms, whereas we put ourselves to great pains for its luxuries, To be content with such things as we have should be specially easy to us, because we have so much to be thankful for, such constant communications from the great Benefactor, and so certain an assurance that He will withhold no good thing from those that walk uprightly. This world is ours, and worlds to come. Earth is our lodge, and heaven our home. I believe that contentment depends very much upon taking right views of things.

1. There is, to wit, a short view. To live by the day is the way to be cheerful. 2. Take also long views as well as short views. Take the view which says, “It

will be all the same a hundred years hence.” Take the view which says, “We shall soon laugh at this present little vexation.” Take that distant view which says, “When I get to heaven this great trial will seem very small; when I look from the hill-tops of glory at my present dilemma, it will probably cause me many a smile, to think that I should have been so vexed and tormented by it.” The secret of true contentment, and the way to get at it, is admirably expressed in these words, “Be content with such things as ye have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Some of the most easygoing people in the world are those who have a Government pension of so much a month. It is little, but it is sure. If all the banks break they will get it. They have no trouble as to how the markets fluctuate, or how different stocks rise and fall in value; or what dividends they might derive from investments. Now, then, that is exactly where the child of God stands; for ye know who hath said--“Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure.” Between now and heaven I do not know who may starve; but I never shall, because the Lord is my Shepherd, and I shall not want.

III. Our last point is the CONFIDENCE with which we may encourage ourselves, and bid defiance to a frowning world. “So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man can do unto me.” This promise of the Lord is fitted to nerve us with courage, as well as to solace us with contentment. If we are oppressed, or if we have to encounter opposition, we may just go straight ahead in the strength of our text, and say, “What can man do unto me?” If God be our helper, why should we shrink or falter; why should we droop or look dismayed; why should we hold our peace or speak with bated breath? (C. H. Spurgeon.)Covetousness--an insidious sin

I asked a question, some years ago, of a person whom I believed to be one of the most covetous individuals in my acquaintance, and I received from him a singular reply. I said, “How was it that St. Francis de Sales, who was an eminent confessor, found that persons confessed to him, in private, all sorts of horrible sins, such as adultery, drunkenness, and murder; but never had one person confessed the sin of covetousness?” I asked this friend whether he could tell me why it was, and he made me this answer, which certainly did take me rather aback. He said, “I suppose it is because the sin is so extremely rare.” Blind scull I told him that, on the other hand, I feared the sin was so very common that people did not know when they were covetous, and that the man who was most covetous of all was the last person to suspect himself of it. I feel persuaded that it is so. Covetousness breeds an insensibility in the heart, a mortification in the conscience, a blindness in the mind. It is as hard to convict a man of it as to make a deaf ear hear of its own deficiencies. You cannot make a horseleech see the impropriety of desiring to suck; to all your expostulations it renders the one answer, “Give, give.” Covetousness goes about in disguise. In the “Holy War” we read that, when Diabolus sent traitors to lurk about the town of Mansoul, he sent among the rest a young fellow named Covetousness; but when he entered into the town of Mausoul, he took the name of Mr. Prudent Thrifty, and he was engaged at once as a servant, I think it was in the house of Mr. Conscience, the Recorder. He seemed such a likely young man, this youth of the name of Prudent Thrifty. Now, mind you, when you are taking a servant, that you do not engage one of the name of Prudent Thrifty; for I have information that he comes of the family of the Greedies, and that his true name is “Covetousness,” though it may be long before you find it out. His near relations are the Screws, the Skinflints, and the Graballs; but he will not own them, but always mentions his

great-uncle, Squire Prudence, and his mother’s brother, Professor Economy, of the University of Accumulation. You will have need to carry your eyes in your head if you mean to practise the precept, “Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have.” (C. H. Spurgeon,)Covetousness destructive of religion:

The Fabulist tells a story of the hedgehog that came to the coney-burrows in stormy weather, and desired harbour, promising that he would be a quiet guest; but when once he had gotten entertainment, he did set up his prickles, and did never leave till he had thrust the poor conies out of their burrows: so covetousness, though it hath many fair pleas to insinuate, and wind itself into the heart, yet as soon as you have let it in, this thorn will never cease pricking till it hath choked all good beginnings, and thrust all religion out of your hearts. (T. Watson.)Covetousness a sign of death:

As it is, therefore, a mark of life in an evergreen, when transplanted, to suffer its fading leaves to fall off easily when touched; and a sign of death when they retain their hold, so that to disengage them you must pull off part of the stem with them; so it is an evidence of spiritual life in the Christian, to sit loose to his possessions, instead of setting his heart upon them; while the covetous man parts with his money in charity as if he were parting with his life.

Be content with much things as ye haveChristian contentment: its hindrance and its help:

Contentment is the central word of the passage, and stands between words representing its greatest foe and greatest friend, like Joshua with the Angel of the Lord and Satan on either side.

I. CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT--WHAT IS IT? TO be contented is to be satisfied; it is the Amen of our spirit with regard to what is.

1. Christian contentment presupposes effort. We are not to be content with many things that we have, nor with anything short of our best.

2. Christian contentment implies a certain amount of failure. There is no room for its exercise where matters cannot be improved; you could not speak of the angels as contented. Joy is the word for heaven; contentment for earth.

3. Christian contentment delivers us from the power of circumstances. It is not a doing without things because we must--that is possible apart from Christian grace; it is repose, satisfaction, the heart saying “Thy will be

done.” To attain to that is to reign as a king over our circumstances. What a great thing is that religion which helps one to this!

II. CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT HINDERED BY COVETOUSNESS. “Let your conversation [character, mode of life] be without covetousness.”

1. Covetousness is a wrongly placed desire for what in itself may be good. The word in the text refers specially to money (R.V.), but it is not the object that makes covetousness. Covetousness may fasten on different things. What is it? (See Luke 12:13-15, etc.). It is a desire for anything (good or bad) not regulated by an appeal to God and God’s requirements; our own spiritual needs.

2. Covetousness is regarded by God as one of the grossest sins. See the position in which it is mentioned as here coming after verse 4, as though a similar sin; also (1   Corinthians 5:10-11 ; 1   Corinthians 6:9-10 ; Ephesians 5:3-5; Colossians 3:5-6; 2   Peter 2:14 ; Mark 7:21-22).

3. Covetousness is the deadly enemy of contentment. They are opposites, and cannot coalesce. Admit covetousness to the heart and contentment takes its flight. Let contentment return, and she will scourge the traders from what she calls, and from what then she makes it, her Father’s house.

III. CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT CHERISHED BY THE ASSURANCE OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE. “Be content, for He hath said, I will never,” &c.

1. This is a declaration of God’s personal presence. Only God can say, “I will not leave thee”; not one of His gifts can say it. Loneliness destroys content. God satisfies.

2. This presence pervades the arrangements of our life. The words must mean that God will be in all our circumstances, and where He is He will not play a subsidiary part, and follow where chance or our waywardness may dictate. “I will not leave thee” must mean I will guide thee: choose thy lot, appoint thy changes, where thou comest thou shalt be brought by Me. Dread of the Unknown destroys content. God in all we have creates content by removing that dread.

3. This presence is the guarantee of protection and supply. No hurt can come to him with whom God is as his friend. Fear destroys content, but God with us enables us to say, “I will not fear.” “He hath said.” There are five negatives here to prevent our doubting it. (C. New.)

Contentment:Every one knows that contentment is another name for happiness.

I. In the first place, let us INQUIRE INTO THE CHIEF CAUSES OF THE OPPOSITE TEMPER. We see, in too many instances, how men, misled by vain illusions, in the eagerness of their pursuit, miss the road even to earthly happiness. Now this unhappy propensity to become our-own tormentors is to be traced, chiefly, to three bitter roots, growing within the mind itself--pride, selfishness, and envy; whence probably proceed a great part of the miseries of mankind.

II. Consider now MUCH THE DIVINE BOUNTY EXCEEDS OUR DESERTS. Instead, therefore, of being the ingenious artificers of our own misery, let us make a better use of our reason. If Providence offer us the means of attaining a happier state, let us thankfully embrace them. But if the will of God appoint otherwise, before we admit a repining thought, let us first endeavour to recount, if we can, the numberless calls we have for gratitude. Though the present state is a state of trial and probation, it is by no means left destitute of comforts and gratifications. Let us resolve, for the time to come, to make a more careful improvement of the blessings of Providence. Gratefully acquiescing in our own condition, let us, instead of envying, be kind and helpful one to another; and sincerely rejoice with those who are placed above us. This is true benevolence. This is true wisdom. (P. Houghton.)Christian contentment

I. EVERY MAN HAS HIS OWN INDIVIDUAL PORTION IN THIS LIFE, ASSIGNED HIM BY GOD.

1. The portion of every man consists of such things as he has: literally, present things.

2. That which each man has, is assigned him by God. Suppose he has a competency for all the comforts of life which he has acquired. In that case, who, but God, gave him capacity of mind, strength of body, business to do, and success in the doing it?

II. WITH THAT PORTION WHICH GOD HAS ALLOTTED HIM, EVERY CHRISTIAN IS REQUIRED TO BE CONTENT.

1. Cautionary remarks. 2. Contentment is3. How it is to be cultivated.

A satisfied spirit

To be content is to be in good humour with our circumstances, not picking a quarrel with our obscurity, or our poverty, or our social position. There are four or five grand reasons why we should be content with such things as we have,

1. The first is the consideration that the poorest of us have all that is indispensable in life. We make a great ado about our hardships, but how little we talk of our blessings.

2. Our happiness is not dependent on outward circumstances. I find Nero growling on a throne. I find Paul singing in a dungeon. I find King Ahab going to bed at noon through melancholy, while near by is Naboth contented in the possession of a vineyard. Haman, prime minister of Persia, frets himself almost to death because a poor Jew will not tip his bat; and Ahithophel, one of the great lawyers of Bible times, through fear of dying, hangs himself. The wealthiest man, forty years ago, in New York, when congratulated over his large estate, replied: “Ah! you don’t know how much trouble I have in taking care of it.” Byron declared in his last hours that he had never seen more than twelve happy days in all his life. The heart right toward God and man, we are happy. The heart wrong toward God and man, we are unhappy.

3. Another reason why we should come to this spirit inculcated in the text is the fact that all the differences of earthly condition are transitory. The houses you build, the land you culture, the places in which you barter, are soon to go into other hands. However hard you may have it now, if you are a Christian the scene will soon end. Pain, trial, persecution never knock at the door of the grave.

4. Another reason why we should culture this spirit of cheerfulness is the fact that God knows what is best for His creatures. Sometimes His children think that He is hard on them, and that He is not as liberal with them as He might be. But children do not know as much as a father. I can tell you why you are not largely affluent, and why you have not been grandly successful. It is because you cannot stand the temptation. If your path had been smooth, you would have depended upon your own surefootedness; but God roughened that path, so you have to take hold of His hand.

5. Another consideration leading us to the spirit of the text is the assurance that the Lord will provide somehow. Will He who holds the water in the hollow of His hand, allow His children to die of thirst?

6. Again, I remark that the religion of Jesus Christ is the grandest influence to make a man contented. Indemnity against all financial and spiritual harm! It calms the spirit, dwindles the earth into insignificance, and swallows up the soul with the thought of heaven. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

The Bible warning against discontentI. We ought to mind it--FOR OUR OWN COMFORT. Now suppose that you

have a long walk to take every day, but you have a thorn run into your foot, or a sharp stone in your shoe--could you have any comfort in taking that daily walk? Certainly not. But a feeling of discontent in our minds is just like that thorn in the foot or that stone in the shoe. It will take away from us all the comfort we might have, as we go on in the walk of our daily duties. A certain bishop had passed through many great trials; but he was never heard to complain in passing through them. He was always contented and cheerful. An intimate friend of his, who had often admired his calm, happy temper, and who felt as if he would like very much to imitate his example, asked him one day if he would tell him the secret of the quiet, contented spirit which he always had. “Yes,” said the bishop, “I will gladly tell you my secret. It consists in nothing more than making a right use of my eyes.” “Please tell me what you mean by this.” “Certainly,” said the bishop; “I mean just this. When I meet with any trial, I first of all look up to heaven, and remember that my chief business in life is to get there. Then I look down upon the earth, and think how small a space I shall need in it when I die, and come to be buried; and then I look round in the world, and think how many people there are who have more cause to be unhappy than I have. And in this way I learn the Bible lesson--“Be content with such things as ye have.”

II. FOR THE COMFORT OF OTHERS. We cannot all have really beautiful faces, but we can all have sweet, pleasant tempers; and a sweet temper gives a loveliness to the face, which is more pleasing than any amount of mere outward beauty. A contented spirit, or a sweet temper, is to a home what sunshine is to the trees of the field or to the flowers of the garden. John Wesley used to say, “I dare no more fret, than curse or swear.” A friend of his, who was intimately connected with him, for a large portion of his life, in speaking of him after his death, said, “I never saw him fretful or discontented under any of his trials. And to be in the company of persons of this spirit always occasioned him great discomfort, and trouble. He said one day, ‘To have persons around me murmuring and fretting at everything that happens is like tearing the flesh from my bones. I know that God sits upon His throne, ruling all things. With this

thought in my mind, and the grace of God in my heart, I may well learn, “To be content with such things as I have.’ Good Mr. Wesley was minding the Bible warning against discontent when he used these words, and was setting a good example for us all to follow. What a blessed thing it would be if all Christians would try to follow his example.

III. TO PLEASE GOD. No trials can ever come upon us in this world without God’s knowledge and consent. He is so wise that He never makes a mistake about our trials, and He is so good that He never lets any trouble come upon us but what He knows will be for the best. And when we try to be patient and contented under our trials, because we know that God orders or permits them, this will be pleasing to Him. “I was going down town in a Fourth Avenue car one day,” says a New York merchant, “when I heard somebody cry out, ‘Holloa, Mr. Conductor, please stop your car a moment; I can’t run very fast.’ The car stopped, and presently there hobbled into it a little lame boy, about ten or twelve years old. I saw from the nice clothes he wore that he was the son of wealthy parents; but oh! his face told such a tale of silent suffering! and yet he was bright and cheerful. He put his little crutch behind him, and placing his poor withered limb in a more easy position, he began to look round at his fellow-passengers. A happy smile played over his pale face, and he seemed to take notice of everything. Presently I got a seat next to him, and as he looked around him I heard him humming in a low tone the words of the hymn, ‘Hark, I hear an angel sing.’ Then I had a little talk with him, and found that he knew and loved the Saviour, and it was this which made him so contented and cheerful. He told me he was born with this withered limb, and that the doctor said it never would be any better. ‘Well, my dear boy,’ I said, ‘under these circumstances, how can you be so happy and cheerful?’ His reply was, ‘Jesus, my Saviour, has sent this trial for me to bear. Father tells me He would not have sent it unless He knew it would be best for me. And don’t you think, sir, that I ought to be satisfied with the best?’ This touched my heart, and brought tears to my eyes. I was just going to get out of the car then. So I shook hands with the little fellow, and thanked him for the lesson he had taught me, which I told him I should never forget as long as I lived.” (R. Newton, D. D.)The unreasonableness of discontent

I. Observe, in the first place, THAT DISCONTENT IS OFTEN OWING TO CAUSES WHICH THE DISCONTENTED MAY THEMSELVES REMOVE. How often do you see people grow sullen and dissatisfied in consequence of straits to

which they have reduced themselves by sloth, by waste, or by expensive indulgences? How often do men become the victims of chagrin through the failure of expectations which they permitted themselves, without any good reason, to indulge. How often, in fine, does it happen that people, instead of endeavouring to make the best, make the worst of every inconvenience in their lot?

II. Are there not in human life innumerable circumstances wholly independent of us, by which the lot of man is very much diversified, and WHAT SHALL WE SAY WHEN DISCONTENT ARISES, NOT FROM CAUSES WHICH WE CAN CONTROL, BUT FROM THE INEVITABLE CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR LOT? NOW, granting that, owing to circumstances which you cannot control, you do not possess all the temporal advantages which you might wish; yet what claim can you advance to more? Food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, a shelter from cold and storms, the pleasing warmth and light of day, and calm silence of night, the alternate enjoyments of labour and rest, our social and domestic pleasures, these are blessings to be found in all the ordinary situations of human life; and these, so far as depend on mere outward things, are the chief blessings which Providence bestows. With respect to luxury and pomp, splendid raiment, magnificent habitations, honours, attendants, and all the dazzling train of circumstances which wait upon riches, they are but little connected with true happiness.

III. The observations hitherto offered apply chiefly to the ordinary situations of human life. BUT ARE THERE NOT CASES OF WRETCHEDNESS THAT PLACE THE SUFFERER BELOW THE ORDINARY LOT? and in all situations does not affliction often await us amidst our most tranquil enjoyments? The duty required in such situations is resignation rather than contentment. It is religion, however, which in all situations possesses the most consoling influence, inspiring contentment amidst the ordinary inconveniences of the human lot, and resignation under the pressure of our heaviest afflictions, and we proceed to consider the arguments applicable to our present subject, that may be derived from this Divine source. One of the views is that suggested in the words immediately following our text. “The Lord is my helper, therefore I will not be afraid for what man can do unto me.” The Scripture informs us farther how it is that these perfections are exercised towards us. Now we are informed that in consequence of that new dispensation, which God hath been carrying on ever since the fall of our first parents, this world is only a state of temporary

preparation for the next. To give a proper scope for the exercise of our talents, to afford us an opportunity of cultivating good dispositions by placing us in various relations to one another, to form us to habits of obedience and resignation, God hath in His infinite wisdom ordained a very great diversity of ranks and circumstances among men. But all this is only a temporary state of things, and when it has accomplished its purposes is abolished by death with respect to each individual, and will be abolished with respect to all mankind when the world is dissolved. (Thos. S. Hardie, D. D.)Discontent:

Discontent is doubtless, on the whole, a useful element in our nature, for it prompts to better things; and it is only when it goes beyond the bounds of moderation that it is seriously objectionable. The great error is that people do not pursue their course of advancement with calmness; they forget to enjoy the advantages which they now possess; and while they look at the future they neglect the present, forgetting that the present is the only real time. This error leads them into two follies; they believe that at some future period they will be happier than they are now, because they will then have at their command means which are at present denied; and secondly, they fancy that people who follow a different mode of life are more favourably circumstanced than themselves. They seem to want a change. I have heard men in business say, “Ah, if I could devote my life to study, instead of grubbing here to get money, I should then be all right.” And, on the other hand, students are heard to say, “After all, it is the man of business who really enjoys reading, when in his hours of relaxation he goes to his books as a relief. But it is odious to make your study a workshop.” Both parties are labouring under a kindred delusion. And thus people go on; their energies are devoted to the attainment of some object, and “ if they can reach that they will find repose.” The end is gained, but soon the object fails to satisfy; they miss the excitement which the chase afforded, and they must propose some new goal or be wretched. The men who place their hopes exclusively in the future confess, by the very act, that they are incapable of enjoying the present (and by enjoyment much more is meant than the mere taking of pleasure); but not wishing to make this humiliating admission, they flatter themselves that something else than what they possess is essential to peace and comfort. This is nothing tess than an excuse for want of contentment; because, when the object of search is attained, they are as far from what they really need as ever. He who does not begin by placing contentment as the basin of external goods, heaps up

in vain, and might as well try to fill a sieve with water as to construct a building of happiness upon a shadowy foundation. Besides, a constant restlessness is the greatest possible hindrance to sound education of the mind. The feverish gaze of the fortune-seeker cannot look aright upon the beautiful creation which is around him, if it ever looks upon it at all. There are many men surrounded by the comforts of life who, if you told them to divert their eyes awhile from future prospects, to cease envying their associates, to admire the wonders of nature and the beautiful world we live in, to be rejoiced at the remembrance of their daily blessings, and to be fully satisfied with their numerous advantages, would put you down for a madman or a fool. It is quite as easy to cultivate such a state of mind as to be constantly pining after what you have not got, or distressing yourself because you are not so well off as other people; and while every man of active mind must desire to go through his daily duties with energy and skill, and to fulfil his vocation with diligence, yet when he has done all this calm contentment is one great means to make him happy and keep him so. (Scottish Pulpit.)The discontented character:

There are people who are constitutionally discontented. Nothing gives them satisfaction. They are like the hermit-crabs, and may well be designated “crabbed.” We see that the animal and the shell are mostly well suited to each other; but it is a remarkable fact that, however well the shell and the crab may be suited to each other, the crab always thinks that a shell belonging to another crab would make a better house. Consequently they will wage direful battles over a few empty shells, although neither of the shells would make so commodious a habitation as that which was already occupied. (Scientific Illustrations and Symbols.)Contentment in vicissitudes:

The other day I watched a little bird who had alighted on a branch almost too frail to bear his weight. The branch was swaying to and fro, but the little songster did not cease his song, He knew he had wings! Christian, learn the lesson that bird would teach thee, and, amid life’s vicissitudes, sing on, for thou art immortal. (The National Baptist.)Contented without contentment

What a beautiful example for all of us is the resolution of the old lady who, from a crabbed and anxious body, became quite the opposite! When asked what had induced the change, she replied, “To tell you the truth, I have been all my life

striving for a contented mind, and finally concluded to sit down contented without it.” (New Cyclopedia of Illustrations.)Contentment under loss

A friend of mine sat down to breakfast one morning, and an ugly-looking letter was handed him, it having just come by post. He opened it and found it was from a broker who transacted business for him. It ran something like this: “Dear sir, I am sorry to inform you that you have lost £50,000.” Now, it is no joke to lose a sum of money like that. To this friend of mine it meant the loss of every penny he had. He had not been gambling, but speculating, as he thought, carefully and wisely. He quietly looked around the breakfast table, then without saying a word he rose and went to his room. He did not go and buy a pistol and blow his brains out. He simply fell on his knees before God, and said, “Dear Heavenly Father, help reel Thou hast given me plenty, and I have tried to use all to Thy glory; now Thou hast taken everything away. Now, Lord, Thou wilt have to feed me straight from heaven. I thank Thee for making me poor, that I may the more fully know Thee as my Father.” He came downstairs again and finished his breakfast. His losses had not even power to spoil his appetite. He has ever since been as poor as a church mouse--and that is poor enough--but he has been rejoicing always, because he has the “joy of the Lord.” I can testify to the truth of this as I know him well, and he was one who came to see me off when I left England. (G. C.Grubb, M. A.)Never satisfied:

My dear hearers, there is not a single soul of you all that are satisfied in your stations: is not the language of your hearts when apprentices, We think we shall do very well when journeymen; when journeymen, that we should do very well when masters; when single, that we shall do well when married; and to be sure you think you shall do well when you keep a carriage. I have heard of one who began low: he first wanted a house; then, says he, “I want two, then four, then six”; and when he had them, he said, “I think I want nothing else.” “Yes,” says his friend, “you will soon want another thing, that is, a hearse-and-six to carry you to your grave”; and that made him tremble. (G. Whitfield.)Contentment:

Contentment bears the hues of joy. (Shakspere.)Content with little:

On the eve of General Gordon’s departure on his last journey, a friend is related to have said to him, “Have you got your kit ready, General?” “I have got

what I always have. This hat is good enough, and so are these clothes. I shall start as I am, my boots are quite strong.” “And how are you off for cash, &c.? You must have some ready money.” “Ah, I had forgot that; I had to borrow five-and-twenty pounds from the King of the Belgians to get over here. Of course I must pay this, and I shall want a little more. A hundred pounds apiece for myself and Stewart will be enough. What on earth do we want more for?” Contentment:

Is that beast better that hath two or three mountains to graze on than a little bee that feeds on dew or manna, and lives upon what falls every morning from the storehouses of heaven, clouds, and providence? Can a man quench his thirst better out of a river than a full urn; or drink better from the fountain which is finely paved with marble, than when it wells over the green turf? (Jeremy Taylor.)Contentment and duty:

There is a fable told about a king’s garden in which the trees and all the flowers began to make complaint. The oak was sad because it did not bear flowers; the rosebush was sad because it did not bear fruit; the vine was sad because it had to cling to the wall and could cast no shadow. “I am not the least use in the world,” said the oak. “I might as well die, since I yield no fruit,” said the rosebush. “What good can I do?” said the vine. Then the king saw a little pansy, which held up its glad, fresh face, while all the rest were sad. And the king said, “What makes you so glad when all the rest pine and are so sad? I thought,” said the pansy, “that you wanted me here because you planted me, and so I made up my mind that I would try and be the best little pansy that could be.” Let us all try to do our best in the little spot where God’s hand has placed us. True contentment

John Sinclair once alighted from his carriage near an abject-looking hovel, and entered into conversation with an old labourer who lived there alone. On leaving he asked if he could serve him in any way. “Sir,” said the old man, with a look of honest contentment, “there is not in this world a thing that I want.” Sir John often said that that poor abode was the only home in which he had found perfect happiness, and requested his daughter to draw him a picture of that one-windowed hut where lived a man who had not a wish ungratified. Contrast the happiness of this man in poor circumstances with the ennui of Napoleon on the day when he was crowned with unexampled splendour by the Pope in Notre Dame. He returned home, and, flinging his splendid robes to different corners of the room, declared that he had never spent in his life such tedious hours.

Polish the dark sideA complaining grumbler was lamenting how things went wrong, when a friend,

writing to console her, bade her “look upon the bright side.” “Oh,” she cried, “there seems to be no bright side.” “Then polish up the dark side,” was the reply. Contentment not hostile to aspirations:

We must not make the ideas of contentment and aspiration quarrel, for God made them fast friends. A man may aspire, and yet be quite content until it is time to rise. A bird that sits patiently while it broods its eggs flies bravely afterwards, leading up its timid young. And both flying and resting are but parts of one contentment. The very fruit of the gospel is aspiration. It is to the human heart what spring is to the earth; making every root and bud and bough desire to be more.

I will never leave theeProvidence--God never leaves things or persons:

You perceive at once, perhaps, that this promise has two distinctive peculiarities. In the first place, it is limited as to its aspect; and secondly, it is mixed as to its character. It is limited as to its aspect. Being not addressed to sinners generally as sinners, its sphere must at once be considered circumscribed and sacred. It is a promise, not to the world as such, but to the Church which has been redeemed out of the world. The design, evidently, of this glorious promise is to keep down the fears of believers in passing through this world to everlasting glory. And we see that there are two classes of evils which make them afraid, against which fears there is a provision in this promise. There are things that trouble you--their confusion, their irregularity, their aspects; and then you live amidst intelligent beings, like yourselves imperfect, and not only so but evil, and you fear from them--you fear things, you fear persons. But God has made a merciful provision against both these fears by saying, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

I. The remarks assume somewhat of a secular character in the first part of the subject. In speaking of these “Things,” the passage refers to such subjects; therefore it is not improper for me to do so. By “things” I understand things of this life--food, raiment, habitation, health, comfort, all those things which are necessary for our existence, for our convenience, and for our comfort, according to our relative positions in society, and especially to the answering the end of our being, namely, doing good and glorifying God our heavenly Father.

1. Now these things, we say, are necessary for us. And when a thing is absolutely necessary, it is right to think of it. But then there is the danger of magnifying our wants, of supposing that we have wants that we have not, and that ten thousand things are necessary for us which would actually be, if given, injurious to us. But so little do we feel that we are in danger here, that it is only when we do feel it, and at no other time, that we in this respect rejoice in the truth and glory of the promise, “I will never leave thee,” etc. And there is another danger to which we are exposed. The very fact that the things of this life have necessity imposed upon them very frequently tends to covetousness. Christian friends, when the world comes over you and consumes your heart and destroys your spirituality, go and weep before the Cross; go and plead this promise again and again in the name of the Saviour, that you may stand, and in the Lord be mighty and strong.

2. I refer to another thing impressed upon the things of this life: there is difficulty; that is to say, the universal law of our natural living in this world is this, “In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.” Labour is man’s necessity, and man’s glory. A man says, “I know that without labour I cannot exist.” The tradesman says it, the politician says it, the philosopher above any says it, the Christian ought to say it. He says, “I see that labour is essential to prosperity and elevation and usefulness”; and then he imagines that it is the cause of it, whereas it is only the condition of it--it is only the connection made by God to subsist; for labour itself, which is merely acting upon matter, trying to produce changes, is nothing without God. We repeat it again, man labours in vain, bodily and inwardly, unless God grants a blessing. And God says to the soul humbled and chastened, “I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee.”

3. I might refer to the mutability that is impressed upon all these “ things,” as a frequent occasion of sorrow. The great political changes, the great commercial storms, the great commercial stagnations which very frequently follow; the death of a friend, a brother, a child, a failure, or what is called a common accident, may change the whole history of a man. And then come the trials of the soul, and then it is the heart goes forth to covetousness; it is then that man begins to fear; and it is then too comes, and then too is felt, the preciousness of the promise, “I will never leave thee.”

II. Let me just glance, in the second place, at PERSONS. Paul, addressing himself to the Hebrews, says, quoting David, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Will you not? Man may injure you; some men have injured you, and you are in danger of being injured still more in the dark future. What is your protection?” The Lord is my helper.” I should be afraid of man; but He being my succour and my helper I shall not be afraid. Man in very many ways may injure us; taking society as it is constituted, and taking into consideration especially its evils. Man may injure our feelings, which is not a very trifling matter--may injure our reputation, civil, social, sacred--may injure our property--may injure our persons--may do what is still more painful, may injure our souls. The nearer and dearer persons are to us, the greater is the danger of being injured by them. They may injure us by the carelessness or even by the impurity of their conversation, they may injure us by false guiles or by base cruelties, they may injure us by their seductions, they may injure us by their frowns, and by their severities, and by their contempts, and by their persecutions. “But the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear,” &c. These then are the external circumstances which render the promise before me peculiarly applicable, “Be content with such things as ye have,” for He, “God,” hath said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” I was going to say, whence evils spring up, and that is ourselves. Many of our fears rise and terminate in our own beings. Evil thoughts, evil imaginations, evil affections, malice, pride, unkindness, indifference to the misery of others, and a variety of other things; these in frightful numbers and in horrid forms present themselves to the conscience, and then the soul is afraid. He thinks of sins in life and sins in language, sins of the soul and sins of the senses, sins against God as a personality, against God as a governor; and, as the scene blackens before his eyes, he says within himself, “I could have trusted that that cloud would have passed away; but I am an offender against my God, I feel that I have increased His displeasure, therefore what shall I do?” Now again comes the promise; yes, and we need not hesitate, we need not tremble to go to God and say, “It is mine, it is mine.” He has said, “I will never leave thee,” etc. Now, I said that the evils were of two kinds--external, arising from circumstances, and personal, springing up from ourselves. Now God meets these two evils, the first by His Providence, and the second by His influences and His Spirit. First, God says, “I will take care of the things”; and secondly, He says, “I will take care of you.” (Caleb Morris.)An unwritten Word of God:

Where has He said so? If the chapter-and-verse theory be insisted upon, there is no proof that these precise words were ever uttered by God. Yet if the doctrine be withdrawn from the Bible, the Bible will be impoverished by the withdrawal of its richest solaces. There are words, too, marvellously like the very words of the text Genesis 28:15; Deuteronomy 31:6; Deuteronomy 31:8; Joshua 1:5). There are words spoken to the soul in secret. The heart remembers, attests, clings to them With tenacious love. There are paraphrased revelations; seed-revelations grown into blooming flowers of assurance. Let us take it, then, as the most assured fact in spiritual history that God never forsakes the man whom He has undertaken to guard and nourish--it is the unwritten and eternal law which comes out of the very nature of the Divine Being.

I. This word is SUFFICIENT--because GOD HAS SPOKEN IT. We say of some men, “Their word is their bond.” Shall we say less of the Living One, of whose eternity our life is but a spark?

II. The word is INSPIRING--because IT PLEDGES THE PERSONAL FELLOWSHIP OF GOD. “I will never leave thee”: not, Angels shall be sent to thee, &c. Enoch walked with God. To Moses God said, “Certainly I will be with thee.” To the Church Jesus says, “I am with you alway,” &c.

III. This word is COMPLETE--because IT EMBRACES ALL TIME: “I will never leave thee.” The child becomes free of the parent; the apprentice is liberated from his bonds; the hireling fulfils his day--but union with God is perpetual, and its joy is an ever-augmenting sum.

IV. This word is CONDESCENDING--because IT IS PERSONAL IN ITS APPLICATION. It is not a pledge given to the universe as a whole; it is spoken to the individual heart, and is to be applied by each heart according to special circumstances. The whole exists for the part, as well as the part for the whole. “All things are yours.” Every flower may claim the sun.

V. This word is Assuring--because IT IS REDUNDANT IN ITS EXPRESSION. “I will never leave thee,” would have been enough for a merely technical bond; more is added; we have word upon word, so that the heart cannot escape the golden walls of protection and security. Love does not study terseness. It must be emphatic; it must be copious. Regarding this promise, what should be its practical effect?

1. We should inquire whether we are entitled to apply it to ourselves. It is not for all men. The question is one of spiritual character. Are we the children of God?

2. Be entitled to it, we should live as if we truly realised it: not gloomily; not self-trustingly; not fretfully; but joyously, devoutly, thankfully.

3. Living as if we realised it, we should ask what we can do in return. “Glorify God in your body,” &c. “Were the whole realm of nature mine,” &c. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice,” &c. (J. Parker, D. D.)

A lesson and a fortune for Christian men of business:I. A WORD OF THE LORD IS OF GREAT WEIGHT TO A BELIEVER. See

then the argument, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said.” That “He hath said “ is the hammer which drives the nail home, and clinches it, with every true child of God.

II. THE WORD OF THE LORD MAY HAVE A THOUSAND FULFILMENTS. When man makes a promise, and he keeps it, that promise is done with. You cannot expect a banker to pay a cheque a second time. The merchant who duly meets his bill once has met it once for all, and the document is henceforth of no value. But when God makes a promise He fulfils it, again, and again, and again, to the same man, and to hundreds of other men. The Lord’s promise once given is never recalled. He does as good as give forth each inspired promise every moment anew; He is for ever promising that which is once promised in His Word. Now I do not think this particular promise is recorded anywhere in the Old Testament in these exact words. He who is the God of grace, and of immutable love, has virtually said, by His very nature, to those that seek His face, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” All that we know about God says, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” All that we have ever experienced about God, all that our fathers have experienced, goes to show that Jehovah does not forsake His people.

III. THE WORD OF THE LORD IS TO BE APPROPRIATED BY EACH CHILD OF GOD, AND ACTED ON. “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” I like this singularity of the person. You see Paul had been saying in general, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have”; and then he changes from the plural and writes, “for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” When the Lord speaks in this instance His promise is in the singular. He saith not “you” and “ye,” but “thou” and “thee.” He speaks to us with that--I do not know what to call it unless I use a French word--sweet tu-toiage, which is the language of endearment, the chosen speech of love. When one man speaks to another, and means him to know that his promise is assuredly and altogether for him, and that he is most lovingly his

friend, he cannot do better than use the singular and personal pronoun. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

IV. EACH WORD OF GOD HAS ITS OWN ‘USEFULNESS. This particular word, that we have before us, is an illustration of this fact.

1. This particular text is an extraordinarily useful one, for, first, if you notice, it covers all time. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Well, if God will never leave me, He will not leave me now. If He will never leave me, no time is excluded from the word” never.” However dark or however bright, it says “never.”

2. Our text covers all space, as well as all time. Suppose we emigrate. Suppose we are compelled to go to a backwoods settlement of America or Canada, or away to Australia or New Zealand, this promise will go with us all the way--“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Suppose we have to take to sea, and lead the risky life of a sailor: we will sail with this at the mast-head--“I will never leave thee.” But suppose we should get into prison. Does not Jesus visit those who are prisoners for His name’s sake? Hath He not said, “I will never leave thee”?

3. And then it covers all circumstances. “I will never leave thee.” I may get to be a very childish old body. “I will never leave thee.” But my dear children may all be dead, and I may be quite a solitary person. “I will never leave thee.” But every friend may turn tail and desert me. “I will “never leave thee.” But I may be in such a state that nobody will own me. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Never, no never, no neverI. VIEW THE WORDS AS A QUOTATION. The Holy Spirit led Paul to quote

from the Scriptures, though he could have spoken fresh words. Thus he put honour on the Old Testament, and taught that words spoken to ancient saints belong to us. Paul quotes the sense, not the exact words--teaching that the spirit of a text is the main thing.

II. VIEW THEM AS A HOUSEHOLD WORD FROM GOD. 1. They are peculiarly a saying of God--“He hath said.” This has been said,

not so much by inspiration as by God Himself. 2. They are remarkably forcible from having five negatives in them in the

Greek. 3. They relate to God Himself and His people. “I” … “thee.”

4. They ensure His presence and His help. He would not be with us, and be inactive.

5. They guarantee the greatest good. God with us means all good. 6. They avert a dreadful evil which we deserve and might justly fear; namely,

to be deserted of God. 7. They are such as He only could utter and make true. Nobody else can be

with us effectually in agony, in death, in judgment. 8. They provide for all troubles, losses, desertions, weaknesses, difficulties,

places, seasons, dangers, &c., in time and eternity. 9. They are substantiated by the Divine love, immutability, and faithfulness. 10. They are further confirmed by an observation of the Divine proceeding to

others and to ourselves. III. VIEW THEM AS A MOTIVE FOR CONTENTMENT. Leading us to

1. Live above visible things when we have stores in hand. 2. Present satisfaction, however low our stores may be. 3. See provision for all future emergencies. 4. A security more satisfactory, sure, ennobling, and Divine, than all the

wealth of the Indies could bestow. 5. Reckon discontent a kind of blasphemy of God.

IV. VIEW THEM AS A REASON FOR COURAGE. 1. Our Helper is greater than our foes. 2. Our foes are entirely in His hand. 3. If permitted to afflict us, God will sustain us under their malice. (C. H.

Spurgeon.)The saint never forsaken

I. Is WHAT RESPECTS GOD WILL NEVER LEAVE NOR FORSAKE HIS PEOPLE.

1. God will never leave His people, so as to cease from loving them. 2. He will never leave them nor forsake them, so as to take from them any of

His new-covenant and special gifts; “ for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:29).

3. He will never leave them so destitute of support and comfort, as that they shall plunge into the depths of despair.

4. The Lord will never leave nor forsake His people totally, nor finally. II. THE GRACIOUS PRESENCE OF GOD IS SUFFICIENT TO SATISFY HIS

PEOPLE IN EVERY SITUATION.

1. If God is graciously present with His people, they have the greatest reason to be content, because He is the most bountiful of all providers.

2. If the Lord be graciously present, with Him he may be content, because he has the most powerful of all protectors.

3. Because, when their God is graciously present with them, they have the wisest of all leaders.

4. They may be content, because they have ever with them the most skilful physician.

5. Since their God will never leave them, nor forsake them, they may be satisfied; because they are always furnished with the most effectual and compassionate Comforter.

6. Since God will never leave His people, they have ever with them the nearest of all relations, and the most excellent of all companions.

III. THE SECURITY GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD, THAT HE WILL NEVER LEAVE THEM NOR FORSAKE THEM.

1. The inviolable faithfulness of the Promiser is good security for the accomplishment of the promise.

2. His relation and love to them is good security for the accomplishment of the promise.

3. The power of the Promiser affords them good security for the accomplishment of the promise.

4. The mediation of Christ may be considered by God’s afflicted and poor people as noble security.

5. The believing consideration, that the glory of all the Divine persons is connected with God’s being graciously present with His people, that He may complete their salvation.

IV. SOME DIRECTIONS HOW TO OBTAIN THE GRACIOUS PRESENCE OF GOD, AND TO MAINTAIN A COMFORTABLE CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIM.

1. You must close with His Son, Jesus Christ, in the offers of the gospel. 2. You must not only begin your acquaintance and correspondence with God,

by believing in our Lord Jesus Christ; but by believing in Him, and improving Him, you must maintain and carry on your correspondence with God.

3. That you may attain and carry on a loving correspondence with God, you must wait on Him, in all the ordinances of His grace.

4. Beware of doing anything that may provoke Him to “leave you, and forsake you.”

5. Endeavour, through the Spirit, to cleave close to Christ, and plead importunately the promise of His perpetual presence,

6. Let unbelievers consider, that this God, who is the best of all friends, the mightiest of all protectors, and the best of all companions, is, to those who persevere in rejecting the overtures of His grace, the most dreadful of all enemies, the most inflexible of all judges, and most terrible of all executioners. Flee, flee, therefore, without delay to the Lord Jesus, as the only all-sufficient Saviour. (John Jardine.)

Never forsaken:I. As AWFUL CONDITION.

1. Forsaking implies an utter loneliness. 2. Utter helplessness. 3. Utter friendlessness. 4. Hopelessness. 5. Unutterable agony.

II. A GRACIOUS PROMISE. What is guaranteed in this promise? Herein doth God give to His people everything. “I will never leave thee.” Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is He mighty? He will show Himself strong on the behalf of them that trust Him. Is He love? Then with everlasting lovingkindness will He have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. Moreover, whatsoever God hath, whether it be in the lowest hades or in the highest heaven, whatever can be contained in infinity or can be held within the circumference of eternity, shall be with His people for ever, since “He hath said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”

III. THE SWEET CONFIRMATIONS of this most precious promise. 1. The Lord will not and cannot leave His people, because of His relationship

to them. He is your Father--will your Father leave you? 2. Then, next, His honour binds Him never to forsake thee. When we see a

house half-built and left in ruins, we say, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.” Shall this be said of thy God, that He began to save thee and could not bring thee to perfection? Is it possible that He will break His word, and so stain His truth?

3. And if that be not enough, wilt thou remember besides this that the past all goes to prove that He will not forsake thee. Thou hast been in deep waters; hast thou been drowned? Thou hast walked through the fires; hast thou been burned?

4. And if that be not enough ask thy Father and the saints that have gone before. Did ever any perish trusting in Christ?

5. There is no reason why He should east us off. Can you Adduce any reason why He should cast you away? Is your poverty the danger of your life? In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us. Do you say it is your sins? That would have been a cause why He never should have loved them, but having loved them when they were dead in trespasses and sins, their sin can never be a reason for leaving them.

IV. And now the SUITABLE CONCLUSIONS to be drawn from this doctrine. 1. One of the first is contentment. 2. Courage is the next lesson. Let us boldly say, “God is my Helper, why

should I fear what man can do unto me.” 3. Then, next, we ought to cast off our despondency. 4. And then, here is an argument for the greatest possible delight. 5. Lastly, what ground there is here for faith. Let us lean upon our God with all

our weight. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Never forsaken:

It is not here said God will never Afflict His people. Sorrow is the heirloom of royal hulls as well as of lowly huts. It is well it should be so, for sorrow is useful; man cannot bear ceaseless sunshine, he needs the intercepting cloud. In the second place, it is not here said that God will never bereave His people. A vacant chair is in every home and by every fireside. It may seem a very severe lesson, but it is a very necessary one--if death never cast his cold, dark shadow upon your fireside, you would begin to worship that fireside; you would incline to make this earthly tabernacle your home. In the next place, it is not said here that men, or even Christians, will never die; that is not so. It does seem to us sometimes inexplicable, if Christ has destroyed death, that Christians should still die. The Answer is, He has not destroyed death as a fact; but He has done better, He has left the fact, but out of the bosom of the cold fact He,has evoked blessings that more than compensate for all its bitterness. God not having promised these things to us, has however said to us what is far better--He will never forsake His

people. He will be with them in any one or in all of these together, their peace and support. His omniscience will always watch you with a sentinel eye that never closes, His omnipresence will always reach and help you--if you go to the ends of the earth. The Lord will not forsake His people. No palace walls, however thick, no guards, however brave, no breadth of sea, no number of miles, no impassable desert, shall intercept the visits or arrest the interposition of God. There is not a sting in the human heart, there is not a shadow, however blighting, on the human soul, which God sees not. When all God’s billows, and afflictions, And troubles pass over you, a light brighter than the brightest star, even the morning star, will rise upon you, and a voice louder than the noise of the sea waves, and more musical by far, will bring comfort to your heart: “It is I be not Afraid.” But in viewing this blessed promise, that God will not forsake His people, let me notice some of the circumstances in which He will not forsake, or, interpreted in the positive form, He will be specially present, for all God’s negatives are most expressive; His promise, “I will not forsake you,” is the strongest form of saying, “The Lord will Always and everywhere be with His people.”

1. Well, God will not forsake you in affliction, and trials, and difficulties, when all you loved is lost, when all you counted on has put forth unexpected wings and fled;--and need I say we live in a period when no man is certain that the honest possessions of to-day will be his property to-morrow; and perhaps the lesson that God is teaching us amid all the mutations of this age is not to set our hearts upon uncertain riches.

2. In the second place, God will not forsake you in the time and during the pain of bereavement. And if this be so, if it be God that interposes, if it be God that takes the pilgrim home, then what is our inference? There are no such things as accidental deaths.

3. God will not forsake His people when entrusted with great responsibilities. When you are called upon to fulfil great duties, never forget to plead God’s great promise. All that is in God is with us, and for us, so that the inexhaustible capital, on which a Christian can draw, is the omnipresence, the omniscience, the omnipotence, the love of God his Father in heaven. The reason why God does not forsake you and me is that He is the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness, so that it cannot be exhausted. Another reason is because He has been pleased to make us His people. God does not forsake us for His name’s sake,

because He has been pleased to make us His people. (J. Cumming, D. D.)

“No, never!” This is a promise which bears no special address. We cannot fix a name to it,

and for this we are grateful. There are some promises, which, like letters, have been addressed to certain persons, and which to the end of time will bear upon their envelope those particular names. There are other promises, and they are by far the most numerous, which either were never exclusively addressed to an individual or community, or were far too great for such to monopolise, or for any age to exhaust; and which have been redirected and repeated in varying phrase, but with identity of meaning and additional emphasis, as generations have passed by. Ah! these old promises, like Him who uttered them, are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. They partake of His own infinitude. This assurance of our text meets the highest needs of our nature. Loneliness is one of the most trying experiences possible to man. It never has been from man’s creation, and never will be to all eternity, “good for man to be alone.” Is it not a mysterious law, that the higher the type of creature the more dependent he is, and the greater his needs? The higher the type, the more complex is the organism, and the greater and more varied the necessities, until we reach man, the greatest creature whom God has made on earth; then we touch the most needy. Thus, as you rise in the scale of being, you rise into need. It is only an Almighty, self-existent God that can be the complement of such a creation. Therefore does God speak to man as He does not to any other creature on earth, as if to say, “I have made thee only a little lower than the angels; hence thou hast immeasurable ambitions, and needs. Thy nobility consists in the greatness of thy dependence. The highest necessity of thy nature is that thou shouldest have great need. I, Myself, am thy supreme need. Thou art too great to be satisfied with less than thy God and thy Saviour. I will satisfy thee; I will not leave thee Godless: better that thou shouldest miss all than thy God. ‘I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee.’”

I. The PROMISE OF DIVINE SUFFICIENCY. “I will in no wise fail thee.” The emphasis which is placed upon the word “Himself” must not be overlooked--“For Himself hath said.” I have pointed out that in proportion to thegreatness of our nature is the measure of our need. I would now remind you that in proportion to the measure of our fall is our need multiplied. No creature in heaven will have made so great a demand upon God as redeemed man. It is to this creature, with

needs intensified by his own sin, but who now realises his entire dependence upon God, that God Himself speaks--“I will in no wise fail thee.”

1. God’s promise projects itself into the unknown future. “I will never leave thee.” Man cannot live in the present. He ever looks forward. His hopes and fears come from life’s morrows. This accounts for the interest which promises and predictions ever awaken in the heart of man.

2. Again, the promise includes every change of circumstance and variety of experience. The words of God by the mouth of Isaiah grandly emphasise Isaiah 42:2). In the face of the infinite variety of disappointment and trouble is the permanence of this Divine promise that God will be with us. None but the eternal and unchanging God, as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, can satisfy our yearnings and meet our needs. It is, however, enough if He be with us.

II. THE PROMISE OF DIVINE FAITHFULNESS. There is nothing more beautiful in life than fidelity, nothing so abhorrent as infidelity. It would seem as if the consummation of the world’s guilt will be its unfaithfulness (Luke 18:8)--unfaithfulness to man as well as to God. Sin will culminate in the prevalence of Cain-like infidelity brother-ward and God-ward. Now, over against that, the acme of God’s excellence is His faithfulness. It is this which alone can triumph over human infidelity. It is this, too, which bears with us in our doubts and fears, and bids us trust (2   Timothy 2:13 , R.V.). Thus the Divine constancy contrasts with our inconstancy. It is this fact that has sustained the saints in all ages when persecuted, and even when “in perils among false brethren.” This assurance may be ours. H we did but appropriate this twofold promise, what heroisms would be ours, and what noble lives we should live! (D. Davies.)God does not forsake His people:

John Owen, in a letter dictated to his friend, Charles Heetwood, says, “Live and pray, hope and wait patiently, and do not despond; the promise stands invincible, that He will never leave nor forsake us.” Forcibly are the negatives in this passage rendered by Kirkham, in his well-known hynm:

“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,I will not, I will not desert to His foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

How sad the confession of Cardinal Wolsey, when he was leaving the world: “Had I been but as careful to please God as I have been to serve my prince, He

would not have forsaken me now in the time of my grey hairs!” How beautifully in contrast with his were the last moments of Mrs. Isabella Brown! A quarter of an hour before she died she was reading a list of Scripture promises: and, noticing particularly this tender declaration, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” she said, faintly: “Oh, they are sweet!” After her death the list was found on her breast with her hand upon it. Dying testimony to God’s faithfulness

Our friend, Dr. William Graham, of Bonn, has lately departed this life, and we are told that on his death-bed one said to him, “He hath said, ‘ I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,’“ to which the good man replied, with his dying breath, “Not a doubt of it t Not a doubt of it!” (C. H. Spurgeon.)God’s presence enough

A heathen sage said to one of his friends, “Do not complain of thy misfortunes, as long as Caesar is thy friend!” What shall we say to those whom the Prince of the kings of the earth calls His sons and His brethren? “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee!” Ought not these words to cast all fear and care for ever to the ground? He who possesses Him, to whom all things belong, possesseth all things. (F. W.Krummacher.)No place where God cannot be found

I have read of a company of poor Christians who were banished into some remote part; and one standing by, seeing them pass along, said that it was a very sad condition these poor people were in, to be thus hurried from the society of men, and made companions with the beasts of the field. “True,” said another, “it were a sad condition indeed if they were carried to a place where they should not find their God. But let them be of good cheer, God goes along with them, and will exhibit the comforts of His presence whithersoever they go.” (T. Brooks.)God’s presence desirable

There are cases in which mere presence is something very bad. The presence of the desperately wicked is a grief and heart-sorrow to the righteous. The presence of a deceitful enemy is a terror to an upright and generous spirit. The presence of one of Job’s comforters in the day of our sorrow is an intolerable nuisance. But the presence of a mother to a sick child, or the presence of a father to a child in bodily danger, or the presence of a medical practitioner to a sick person is as light in darkness, or as a copious dew upon withered grass. Simple presence is very good when presence has a good and sweet influence.

But presence and action, presence and ministration, presence and service, is all we can desire--that is, if the individual present be such as we desire. (S. Martin.)God’s presence operative:

If God be with us we shall never be alone, nor shall we feel lonely--that is, if we believe in God’s presence. If God be with us, He will not be inactive on our behalf. He will provide for us so that we shall not be needy or destitute (Psalms 23:1). He will guide us so that we shall not err or mistake our way (Psalms 73:24). He will protect us so that no real evil can befall us (Psalms 121:7-8). He will preserve us that we shall not perish or lose any good thing (John 10:28, 2   Timothy 4:18 .) (S. Martin.)God’s friendship all-sufficient:

There is an old English proverb which says, “He cannot be poor who has the Lord Mayor for his uncle”; we may rather say, “He cannot be poor who has God for his friend.”

Verse 6Hebrews 13:6

The Lord is my helper.A cheerful confidence in God

I. THE CHEERFUL PROFESSION OF CONFIDENCE IN GOD AGAINST ALL OPPOSITION, AND IN THE MIDST OF ALL DISTRESSES, IS THAT WHICH BELIEVERS HAVE A WARRANT FOR IN THE PROMISES THAT ARE MADE UNTO THEM.

II. AS THE USE OF THIS CONFIDENCE IS OUR DUTY, SO IT IS A DUTY HIGHLY HONOURABLE UNTO THE PROFESSION OF THE GOSPEL.

III. BELIEVERS MAY USE THE SAME CONFIDENCE THAT DAVID USED, SEEING THEY HAVE THE SAME GROUNDS OF IT THAT DAVID HAD. For outward circumstances alter not the state of things as unto faith or duty.

IV. THAT ALL BELIEVERS, IN THEIR SUFFERINGS, AND UNDER THEIR PERSECUTIONS, HAVE A REFRESHING SUPPORTING INTEREST IN DIVINE AID AND ASSISTANCE. For the promises hereof are made unto them all equally in their suffering state, even as they were unto the prophets and apostles of old.

V. IT IS THEIR DUTY TO EXPRESS WITH CONFIDENCE AND BOLDNESS, AT ALL TIMES, THEIR ASSURANCE OF THE DIVINE ASSISTANCE DECLARED IN THE

PROMISES, TO THEIR OWN ENCOURAGEMENT, THE EDIFICATION OF THE CHURCH, AND THE TERROR OF THEIR ADVERSARIES (Philippians 1:28).

VI. FAITH DULY FIXED ON THE POWER OF GOD, AS ENGAGED FOR THE ASSISTANCE OF BELIEVERS IN THEIR SUFFERINGS, WILL GIVE THEM A CONTEMPT OF ALL THAT MEN CAN DO UNTO THEM.

VII. THE MOST EFFECTUAL MEANS TO ENCOURAGE OUR SOULS IN ALL OUR SUFFERINGS, IS TO COMPARE THE POWER OF GOD WHO WILL ASSIST US, AND THAT OF MAN WHO DOTH OPPRESS US (Matthew 10:28).

VIII. THAT WHICH IN OUR SUFFERINGS DELIVERETH US FROM THE FEAR OF MEN, TAKES OUT ALL THAT IS EVIL IN THEM, AND SECURES OUR SUCCESS. (John Owen, D. D.)God’s people protected from enemies

1. These have their enemies, signified by the word Man, “what man may do against me.”

2. These men being enemies do much against them, or at least attempt to do much; for wicked men together with the devil are great enemies to Christ’s kingdom and His subjects. The devil designs their spiritual, the wicked their temporal ruin; and the design of the one is subservient to the other. The devil makes use of temporal persecutions to shake their faith; both hate the Church and thrust sore at it.

3. Yet God is with them, stands for them, helps them, strengthens and protects them, and gives them safety in the midst of danger, joy in the midst of sorrow, bread in the midst of famine.

4. If God be with them, for them, and their help, they need not fear anything, no, not the worst that man can do unto them, but may be confident of safety and deliverance; they need not much desire the best things of the world, nor fear the worst.

5. They may think, believe, say, and be assured, that God is their help. And so much the rather, because God hath promised that He will not leave or forsake them at any time, and why should they be covetous or fearful, there is no cause of either. (G. Lawson.)

Man not to be feared:When Dr. Rowland Taylor was brought before Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester,

the bishop asked him how he durst look him in the face, and if he knew who he was. “Yes,” replied the doctor, “I know who you are--Dr. Stephen Gardiner,

Bishop of Winchester, and Lord Chancellor, and yet but a mortal man, I trow. But if I should be afraid of your lordly looks, why fear you not God, the Lord of us all? How dare you look any Christian man in the face, since you have forsaken the truth, denied Christ, and done contrary to your oath and writing? With what face will you appear before Christ’s judgment-seat and answer to your oath against popery in King Henry VIII.’s time and in the reign of King Edward VI., when you both spoke and wrote against it?” (W. Whitecross.)A right to the promises of God cleared up:

Let it be thy chief concern to have thy interest in and right to the promises cleared up. This is the hinge on which the great dispute between thee and Satan will move in the day of trouble. Oh, it is sad for a poor Christian to stand at the door of the promise, in the dark night of affliction, afraid to lift the latch, whereas he should then come as boldly for shelter as a child into his father’s house. (W. Gurnall.)

Verse 7Hebrews 13:7

Remember them which have the rule.The duty of imitating the primitive teachers and patterns of Christianity

I. THE DUTY ENJOINED. If we would preserve that purity of faith and manners, which our religion requires, we should have frequent recourse to the primitive teachers and patterns of Christianity, and endeavour to bring our belief and lives to as near a conformity with theirs as is possible. Who so likely to deliver the faith and doctrine of Christ pure, as the primitive teachers of it, who received it from our Lord Himself; and were, by an extraordinary assistance of the Holy Spirit, secured from error and mistake in the delivery of it? And who so likely to bring their lives and conversations to an exact conformity with His holy doctrine, as they, who were so thoroughly instructed in it by the best Master, and shown the practice of it in the most perfect example of holiness and virtue?

II. WHEREIN WE SHOULD IMITATE THESE PATTERNS. 1. We are to imitate these primitive patterns, in the sincerity and purity of their

faith; I mean, that the faith which we profess be the sincere doctrine of Christianity, and the pure word of God, free from all mixture of human additions and inventions.

2. We are to imitate them, in the stability and firmness of our faith, and not suffer ourselves to be shaken, and removed from it, by every wind of new doctrine; the faith of Christ being unchangeable as Christ Himself.

3. We are to imitate them, in the constancy and perseverance of their faith; and that, notwithstanding all the discountenance and opposition, persecution and suffering, which attend the profession of this faith.

4. We should imitate them in the efficacy and fruitfulness of their faith, in the practice and virtues of a good life; “ whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation,” that is, their perseverance in a holy course to the end. And these must never be separated; a sound faith and a good life.

III. THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO THIS, from the consideration of the happy state of those persons, who are proposed to us for patterns, and the glorious reward which they are made partakers of in another world. “Considering the end of their conversation,” την εκβασιν, their egress or departure out of this life into a blessed and glorious state, where they have received the reward of their faith and patience, and pious conversation in this world; or else (which comes much to one)considering the conclusion of their lives, with what patience and comfort they left the world, and with what joyful assurance of the happy condition they were going to, and were to continue in for ever. (Archbp. Tillotson.)The remembrance of past teachers

I. THIS IS OUR BEST, THIS IS OUR ONLY WAY OF REMEMBERING THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN OUR GUIDES, LEADERS, AND RULERS IN THE CHURCH, WHETHER THEY HAVE BEEN APOSTLES, OR EVANGELISTS, OR ORDINARY PASTORS NAMELY, TO FOLLOW THEM IN THEIR FAITH AND CONVERSATION.

II. THIS OUGHT TO BE THE CARE OF THE GUIDES OF THE CHURCH NAMELY, TO LEAVE SUCH AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH AND HOLINESS, AS THAT IT MAY BE THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH TO REMEMBER THEM, AND FOLLOW THEIR EXAMPLE. Alas! how many have we had, how many have we, who have left, or are likely to leave, nothing to be remembered by, but what it is the duty of the Church to abhor! how many, whose uselessness leads them into everlasting oblivion!

III. THIS WORD OF GOD IS THE SOLE OBJECT OF THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH, THE ONLY OUTWARD MEANS OF COMMUNICATING THE MIND AND GRACE OF

GOD UNTO IT. Wherefore upon it, the being, life, and blessedness of the Church doth depend.

IV. A DUE CONSIDERATION OF THE TRUTH OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BEFORE US, ESPECIALLY OF SUCH WHO WERE CONSTANT IN SUFFERINGS ABOVE ALL, OF THOSE WHO WERE CONSTANT UNTO DEATH, AS THE HOLY MARTYRS IN FORMER AND LATTER AGES, IS AN EFFECTUAL MEANS TO STIR US UP UNTO THE SAME EXERCISE OF FAITH WHEN WE ARE CALLED UNTO IT. (John Owen, D. D.)The Church in relation to her past:

The feeling which underlies these words of reverential admiration for the saintly dead, the founders and confessors of the Church gone to their rest, is one which at a later age wrought to Christianity much mischief. Yet it is in itself an eminently natural and proper sentiment. It was surely becoming in the early Church to keep green the names of her noble apostles; to guard with pious care the dust of her martyrs; to connect with each local congregation the memory of those missionaries who had planted, of those pastors who had nourished it. Customs in their origin so inoffensive and beautiful as these led speedily to serious abuse. Out of beginnings the most harmless there grew up all over Christendom, as pure religion degenerated, a mighty system of holy places, holy days, and holy relics; a system of saint-worship, sustained by lying miracles and discredited by acts of the grossest superstition; a system the vastness and persistency of which must still provoke the astonishment of a Christian historian. Yet our text reminds us that at the root of such abuses there really lay, after all, a valuable truth. It is this: The Church of Christ is the heir of her own past. That inheritance she ought never to disown. Her successive periods, like the stages of human existence, have a link of natural piety to bind them together. The present grows out of that which has been; and the generation which is now alive has lessons to learn from the dead generations that are gone before. God has written Himself and His truth upon the lives of our godly fathers, and on their triumphant witnessing deaths, in such wise that we their children shall lose much if we fling away the memory of it. Inspiration we shall lose; for what kindles imitation like the examples of the beloved and revered dead? Continuity we shall lose; for in the children there ought to live anew the spirit of their fathers. Experience we shall lose; of which the lessons are for our warning as well as guidance; experience that is the child of history and the parent of wisdom. Steadfastness we shall lose; when, lightly forsaking the devotion and the beliefs that made our forerunners strong, we

suffer our religion to vary with the passing moods of every age, and are carried about with divers and strange doctrines. Let it be asked, first of all, why should it be worth our while to review with close attention the career of dead saints, and reflect in what their course of Christian living issued at the last? For this reason, that He who was the object of their faith, and the source of their life, and the prize of their fidelity, He in whose truth and fellowship lay all the glory and hope of their career, is to us exactly what He was to them--the same unaltered, undiminished object of trust and source of power! “Christ Jesus is the same yesterday and to-day; for ever.” But yesterday your eyes beheld your leaders. The names you venerate as you recall them were living names. He it was in whom their life was lived, and their words uttered, and their deeds of witness-bearing done. If the issue of their career was memorable for its fearless martyr-devotion or its unshaken trust in death, who but He was the Lord in whom and for whom they died? To-day we are in their place; and we miss them, and the times are evil, and timid hearts are quaking. But today, as yesterday, Jesus, for His part, abides the same; passed into the heavens, able to save to the uttermost, ruling a kingdom which cannot be moved. Thus the lives and deaths of departed believers become instinct with lessons of encouragement so soon as you perceive how they were but the temporary organs through whom an enduring Saviour discovered to the world His truth and grace. Christ is Himself the sum of His own faith, as well as the Head of His whole Church. In a sense in which no other founder of a religion ever was identified with the faith He founded, He is Christianity. Therefore in His unchangeableness there lies a permanent factor, an element of perennial life and youth, for Christian history. If the dead fathers spoke to us the Word of God, it was because they found it in the person of Christ. If the end of their conversation, the last exit scene of their earthly walk, was edifying and saintly, He who gave them steadfast endurance and grace for dying need has not bade us farewell, but is as able to hold us in His peace and keep us from falling and conduct us across the sullen river to the shining shores beyond! Courage, then, for the desponding Christian heart! Hope for every generation that mourns its vanished leaders! New times bring new perils and impose new labours; but no time can rob us of Him in whose strength all past saints grew strong, or quench or dim the deathless presence which burns on through all the ages. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)Duty to spiritual rulers

I. THE SPECIAL DUTY TO WHICH WE ARE SUMMONED. It is very instructive to observe, that when the apostle fastens our attention on those

servants of God who have gone to their rest, he does not call up before our minds the gifts with which they were endowed, or the attainments by which they were distinguished; he says nothing of the learning of which they were possessed, or the eloquence with which they were adorned. Nay, it is not on that which was official or personal that he fastens; not on aught that was distinctive or peculiar to them, as the commissioned ambassadors of Christ, but on that which they professed in common with all saints. Now when the apostle here singles out the faith by which they were distinguished, and bids us be followers of that, it is not because that was the one solitary feature of Christian character by which they were distinguished. Nay, faith never stands alone; but it is singled out just because it is the one great fundamental principle which ministered to the vitality of all the other graces of the Christian character. It is faith that unites the soul to Christ; and so it is the spring of their spiritual life. It is faith that keeps the soul leaning upon Christ, and thereby secures their safety. It is faith that keeps the soul ever near to Christ, and so it promotes their holiness and conformity to Christ. It is faith that draws out of the fulness that is treasured up in Christ, and supplies the believer with the nourishment needed for the ripening of his Christian character, that he may reach “the measure of a perfect man.”

II. THE CONTEMPLATION THAT IS TO ANIMATE US TO THE IMITATION OF THEIR FAITH.

1. The word rendered “considering” signifies looking at, or beholding with attention. It is a metaphor from the art of painting. When a pupil is learning his art, he is set to copy a picture of his master--to imitate that picture, and reproduce it if he can; and in order to do this he must keep carefully looking to it, keeping it ever before him. In like manner, the apostle summons us, while engaged in this work of imitating the faith of departed believers, to keep steadfastly before us the end of their faith.

2. The word rendered “the end” signifies not only termination, but also exit. It means an end accompanied with, and consisting in, an escape or deliverance from the trials and temptations to which they were exposed.

The remembering of departed Christian ministers:When we have followed the remains of our departed pious friends to the house

appointed for all living, we are apt to conclude that our connection with them has, for the present, entirely ceased. But it is not so. They are gone; but we have not done with them. We are to embalm their memory in our heart, to recollect the instructions which we have received from them--to consider their life, and

especially how they died; that we may be taught, both how we are to live, and how to be prepared to die.

I. THE NATURE OF THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 1. A Christian minister must be a guide to his flock. It is true that it is God

alone who efficiently leads His people like a flock through this wilderness to the heavenly Canaan. But it is also true that Christian ministers are undershepherds of the great Bishop of souls. In the exercise of these important functions, however, they have no dominion over the faith of the flock; no authority to constrain the conscience, except by the presentation of the truth and the influence of love.

2. A Christian minister must preach the Word of God. He is to beware of preaching himself, or of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

3. Such being the nature of the pastoral office, and the duty of those who hold it, what ought to be their character? They should be like those described in the text. These were, in the first place, men who were strong in faith, giving glory to God; and, in this point of view, were worthy of the imitation of all believers. But, further, they were men whose conversation was worthy of their profession. They lived as Christians; they glorified that Saviour “who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.” To promote His cause was the object of their existence. In Him they placed their confidence; in Him their affections centred. And they consecrated their time, their talents, their property, and life itself, to the promotion of his cause in the world; and their end was like their life.

II. THE DUTY WHICH WE OWE TO FAITHFUL DEPARTED MINISTERS. 1. We ought to remember pious ministers. Remember what they were--the

ministers of God to you--the messengers of the King of kings, invested with the high commission of proclaiming to you those glad tidings of great joy which bring glory to God and salvation to men.

2. We ought to follow their faith, that is, imitate them in their steadfastness in the profession of the faith which they preached, and, like them, be faithful unto the death,

3. We ought to consider the end of their conversation--we should attentively, and with a view to our own profit, consider their deportment its object, and its issue. (G. Johnston.)

How to honour the saintly dead

Men naturally desire to be remembered, though dead and gone, to have their names perpetuated to after ages; nor has there been wanting among the heathen such, who, though not inspired with the hopes of a future reward, yet have taken care to have their memories conveyed to posterity. Witness the Egyptian pyramids, as also certain statues among the Greeks, with the names of their founders inscribed On them. And indeed so it is; for otherwise God would never have assured it to righteous men that they should be had in everlasting remembrance, that their righteousness should remain for ever, and their memories never perish. Whereas God hath threatened the wicked with excision, even of their very names, that their memory should perish; or, if it did out-live them, it should rot. How very exact too were the primitive Christians in honouring the memories of their martyrs and deceased bishops? For this were the diptychs read in the church, which were two leaves or tables, on the one whereof were written the names of those pious men and confessors who were yet alive; and on the other those who had died in the Lord and were at rest. For this were altars erected over their graves; for this were their pictures hung up in their private shops and houses; for this were churches, though dedicated to God, made to boar the names of saints to preserve their memories; for this were their feast days celebrated, panegyrics made on them, and their lives written. St. Basil wrote the life of Barlaam, who was but a poor shepherd; Nazianzen, of Basil and others, which, he saith, he left to posterity as a common table of virtue for all the world to look on. We do not read of any worship in those times addressed to them; we do not read of any prayers for them to be delivered out of purgatory; nor of adoring their relics; nor of making vows or oblations unto them. But the greatest honour which they did them was to follow or imitate them, which is the second duty inculcated in the text. The very remembrance of good men is an approach to holiness, otherwise St. Paul would not have required it. By virtue of this imitation it is that we become influenced, nay, ecstasied with the spirits of those who are gone before us; that we become meek with Moses, patient with Job, chaste with Joseph, devout with David. Would they have unworthily betrayed their holy faith? With what courage, with what patience were they endowed! And indeed, as I intimated even now, this is the highest honour we can do them, to propound them to ourselves as our patterns, and to follow them in their constant love to God, to religion, and to all mankind, whatsoever we suffer for it. By this we raise them as it were from the dead to life again, we revive their memories, we personate them in this world, and act their parts. Our actions are

the resultances of theirs, our praises the echoes of their songs, and our selves the living images of them. And those who do thus honour God’s saints and friends, God Himself will honour everlastingly. Here are two graces expressed in the text in which especially we are obliged to follow them.

1. Their faith. 2. Their perseverance and constancy even unto the end of their conversation.

As to faith, we here understand by it the grace rather than the rule of faith, and by it we mean a constant dependence upon God for the performance of His promises; a being convinced of the truth of those things of which we have no ocular or sensible demonstration. Intuentes, looking upon seriously, and diligently, again and again, their exit, their going out of the world. Revolve with yourselves how holily they adorned their faith, how constantly they persevered in the profession of it, how gloriously they attested and signed it with their blood! Faithful they were unto death, or, as Clemens Alexandrinus expresseth it, to the very last gasp, as they did run the race set before them, so they did it with patience and perseverance. (Edward Lake, D. D.)Ministers to be remembered after they are dead

I. WHAT A TRUE MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST LEAVES TO BE REMEMBERED BY HIS PEOPLE AFTER HIS DECEASE.

1. And the first thing which offers itself to our observation herein, is, his doctrine--sound and true; perfectly agreeable to the oracles of God with which he is entrusted, and which he has taken in charge to deliver to the souls of men.

2. The next thing which a true minister of Christ leaves to be remembered is--his example as a true follower of Jesus Christ.

3. Another particular which a faithful minister leaves to be remembered, is his injunctions and admonitions.

4. The last thing which I shall mention, that a true minister of Jesus Christ leaves to be remembered by his people after his decease, is his love to their souls.

II. THE DUTY WHICH IS INCUMBENT ON THE PEOPLE, TO FOLLOW THE SOUND FAITH OF SUCH A TRUE AND FAITHFUL MINISTER. “Whose faith follow.”

III. THE REASON WHY THE PEOPLE SHOULD THUS REMEMBER AND FOLLOW THE FAITH OF SUCH A MINISTER, FROM THE CONSIDERATION OF THE GOOD END WHICH HE HAD IN VIEW IN ALL HIS LABOURS, AND

THE CHRISTIAN MANNER IN WHICH HE IS ENABLED TO FINISH HIS COURSE. “Considering the end of their conversion,” I shall use these words in two senses.

1. “As respecting the end of their conversation in life, or that end which the ministers of Jesus Christ have in view, in the things which they preach and recommend.” This end is--the good of your souls.

2. This expression may more particularly mean the end by which the Christian minister finishes his course. And this, I apprehend, is the sense in which it is more generally understood. Now, if here, in the finishing part, he be able to bear a good testimony to the truth of that which he has delivered, it is the fullest human confirmation which we can expect of its truth. For death is a trying hour. However any may be able in the day of health and strength, firmly to hold to their deceits, yet, unless the mind be overwhelmed with ignorance, or the conscience seared, that hour will tear all such webs asunder; it will try every man’s work of what sort it is. But now, the delusions of fancy or the pretensions of the hypocrite are detected by this awful test; if, on the other hand, in this hour of severe trial, the Christian minister’s hope stands firm, and instead of retracting anything from the doctrines which he has delivered, he testifies of them as more precious than ever; surely such evidence recommends itself to our fullest attention, and carries with it the greatest force for the conviction of every candid mind. (James Stillingfleet, M. A.)

Preachers speak after death:There are strange legends extant of churches which have been swallowed by

earthquakes, or buried beneath fallen mountains. The rustics declare that they have heard the bells still ringing, far down in the bowels of the earth, just as they did when they hung aloft in the tower. Take the bells to be preachers and the legend is true, for being dead they yet speak, and from their graves they sound forth lessons not less powerful than those with which they made their pulpits resound while they were yet with us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Honour God’s ministers:

Take heed of that; for then God is dishonoured, when anything is the more despised by how much it relates nearer unto God. No religion ever did despise their chiefest ministers; and the Christian religion gives them the greatest honour. For honourable priesthood is like a shower from heaven, it causes blessings everywhere; but a pitiful, a disheartened, a discouraged clergy waters the ground

like a waterpot--here and there a little good, and for a little while; but every evil man can destroy all that work whenever he pleases. Take heed; in the world there is not a greater misery can happen to any man than to be an enemy to God’s Church. All histories of Christendom, and the whole Book of God, have sad records, and sad threatenings, and sad stories of Korah, and Doeg, and Balaam, and Jeroboam, and Uzzah, and Ananias, and Sapphira, and Julian, and of heretics and schismatics, and sacrilegious; and after all, these men could not prevail finally, but paid for the mischief they did, and ended their days in dishonour, and left nothing behind them but the memory of their sin, and the record of their curse. (Bp. Taylor.)

Jesus Christ the same. The immutability of Christ:

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has just been recalling memories of the first apostles of the gospel. Many of them were dead. Those who had seen Christ, and who had listened to Him, became day by day fewer in number. The flux of time, and the ravages of persecution, had done their work in thinning out the illustrious band. More than one soul had been dismayed and discouraged, and therefore it was necessary to recall to the minds of all that, though men may come and men may go, the cause of Christ is immortal. It is just this thought which the sacred writer expresses in glowing words of lofty exultation, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” To be immovable, unchangeable, immortal, is the greatest end men can think of. It is the supreme dream of earthly vanity. In this world nothing remains long. Man is carried to and fro by the sweeping and the swirling of the tide. The very molecules of which his body is composed are changed from time to time with a rapidity which defies the calculating powers of science. Generations come and generations go as rapidly and as transiently as the forest leaves swept by the autumn breeze, and it is precisely this mutability, this feebleness, which man most resents. Was there ever a man--an educated man, at any rate--who did not passionately desire to leave a name which would survive him? There is the dream of literary ambition. There is the dream of military glory for which men face, with cool composure, the cannon’s mouth. Well-a-day! Of all those whom the thirst for glory has seized, how many ever attained it? Many were called. How many were chosen? How small, after all, is the number of those who leave behind them an undestroyable memory or fame that no man will dispute! To some it has been vouchsafed to serve with distinction their country on the field of battle, or in Parliament; others

have opened up new tracts to civilisation, and have acquired a fame purer than that of arms, or they have guided the consciences, and have made themselves the teachers of humanity. Is it not certain that, in the treasure-house of history, there are reputations which are imperishable, against which time and the changes of this mortal life are powerless to corrode? Now is this an idea similar to that of the text, where we are told that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever? Is it merely a question of saying that, among the sons of men, nobody has left on earth a pro-founder trace or a more indestructible fame? That of itself would be an imperishable glory, but the text has more to say than this. It speaks to you of a truth believed under every sky by the Church’s children, that Christ is living, and that He reigns for ever. Christ is in the midst of us by His Eternal Presence. Others have acquired immortality by their work, but it is an immortality limited by questions, whether their work is more durable, more true, more striking, more useful, than that of possible rivals. Jesus Christ is working to-day as He worked yesterday, and as He will work to-morrow. The better to understand this immutability, consider--

I. THE IMMUTABILITY OF HIS TEACHING. He told us that it would be so. Standing one day in view of the Temple, He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” It is remarkable that, when He pronounced these words, not one of them was written down. They were confided to the memory of a few poor, ignorant men, who hardly understood them. In the sanctuaries of Thebes, of Delphi, and of Nineveh, the religious thought of millions of worshippers have been engraved on marble and on metal, in the desire to hand down to coming generations the names and the exploits of their gods. What is there left of it all? The memorials of the proud religions of the masters of the world, and those remembrances which one might have expected to be imperishable, have vanished into the sombre depths of the great ocean of oblivion but, like the ark of old, the words of Christ preserved in four little books have become the heritage, and the treasure, not only of all the successive generations of all the superior races on the face of the earth, but also of the humblest and the poorest among the children of men. You will tell me, perhaps, that in this perpetual duration of the teaching of Jesus Christ, there is nothing very extraordinary and nothing peculiar to Himself. I may be told of many thinkers and poets since Homer and Plato whose works have become the property of humanity. But there is; in the teaching of Jesus Christ, another feature. It is unchanging, not only in its duration, but in the nature of the authority it

possesses. Here is a gospel which, in every age and in every clime, subjugates and makes captive the human conscience. Hundreds of millions of souls live and die under the same spell which, in the days of our Lord, captivated disciples as they listened to Him for the first time. Ask yourself why this should be so. The object of true religion is to establish and strengthen the double tie existing between God and man, and between man and his fellow man. What is the root of all our knowledge of Jesus Christ if it is not just this? The tie which linked us to God has been broken by sin. It can be re-established by pardon from God and faith from man, and when it has been formed anew it should show itself in the justice and the charity of our lives. That is the substance of all Christ’s teaching. Let us take another step. The teaching of Christ is remarkable, not only for what He said, but for what He did not say. His extraordinary sobriety of thought and of language is the best proof that His was not the supreme effort of the human soul aspiring towards the infinite. It is the revelation of God who tells man just as much as it is necessary for him to know and no more. This sobriety is the most striking proof of His immutability. Let us suppose that, like every other religious teacher, He had touched upon political and social questions, that He had pronounced some views on scientific questions, and we found in the pages of the Gospel a system of caste, as in Brahminism, or a code of legal enactments, as in Mahommedanism, or even a religious philosophy, such as that of the schoolmen. Is it not plain that on all sides He would have exposed Himself to unnecessary attacks from the progressive thought of the ages? He might have impressed men by His brilliancy, but in His teaching there would have been the seeds of decay. What do we find it: them? Why, we find that marvellous, that indefinable, thing which we call life. Just in that way, life is always found in the words of Christ, immutable in its essence, infinitely diverse in its applications. They are words which can never grow old. They are as immutable as Justice, fruitful as Love, eternal as Truth.

II. Look, again, at the immutability of Jesus Christ as exemplified in His PERSON. Jesus Christ is not only a Master, a Revealer, but He is also a Revelation. He did not merely say, “Listen to Me”; He said, too, “Look at Me.” Not only did He say, “Believe My words,” He said, “Believe in Me.” In the person of Jesus Christ there are two Beings in unity, the Son of God and the Son of Man, the visible image of the invisible God, and the ideal type of humanity. I am not going to attempt to explain the Mystery. I simply place myself in the presence of Jesus Christ. There I see the Ideal Type of moral perfection. I say that this Type

is immutable, and that the words of the text are true of that Type, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” Just think of it for a moment--an immutable Ideal! Is there not something bold and even presumptuous in the very phrase? Nothing in the history of the human imagination is so difficult as to create an ideal of perfection which will last. The greatest geniuses have failed in the endeavour. Dante and Milton described with wonderful power the sufferings of hell; they failed, utterly, when they tried to paint the harmonies of heaven. Novelists who have depicted with bitter truth the anguish of remorse, and the consuming tortures of guilty passion, have never yet succeeded in creating an ideal hero. The ideal of one race is not the ideal of another. But in Christ’s Person I behold a strange fact. Here is a Being who came forth from the East. Here is a Descendant of Shem who will bend the sons of Japhet. Here is a Representative of the House of Israel in whom representatives of all earth’s races have found and adored the absolute Moral Ideal. He has bent before His Throne the art-loving children of Greece, who in His Cross of shame have discovered a creation of beauty which none of their most gifted artists could imitate. Before His sceptre have bowed low the chiefs and the soldiers of Imperial Rome, and when in the ruin of that Empire young and barbarous races streamed forth from the far-off lands of the East, like troubled waves of the ocean tossing and heaving beneath the anger of God, those restless souls bowed down in the dust before a Majesty simpler and purer than any they had ever seen, in fact, or in dream. He restrained the brutality of men in the Middle Ages, when, in the Renaissance, the antiquity which men had rediscovered intoxicated their minds with subtle fancies, He took possession of the strong souls, like Luther and like Calvin, who, by their very faults, checked the shortcomings of their age. So it was in the seventeenth century, the century of positive science, the age which saw masters like Copernicus, like Euler, like Newton, like Pascal, great souls whose glory it was to devote themselves and all their genius to the service of their fellow men. And so it is to-day. After criticism the most pitiless, after scrutiny the most rigid, after all His acts, His works, His life have been dissected, that sublime Figure still remains as sublime and as holy as ever, towering above human ideas of grandeur, above human idols and human follies.

III. Immutable, too, is He in His WORK. For three years He worked on earth. By the Spirit He works throughout the centuries, and in all time you will see in His work three great characteristics.

1. He saves. For that purpose He came here. He is nothing unless He is the Redeemer.

2. He sanctified. Through the ages He gives humanity new life, transforming man’s hearts, changing men’s wills and men’s lives, working a work in man’s souls analogous to that which here below He wrought in their bodies when He healed men’s leprosies, delivered men possessed of devils, raised men who had passed into the grasp of death. I know well to what you are going to object. Where, you will ask me, was this sanctifying influence in the days of Constantine, and of Clovis, or, later on, in Christian Gaul when the Merovingian kings illustrated all the infamies of life? Where, we have often asked, has it been in many of our modern churches, which have become worldly and insipid like salt that has lost its flavour? It was there. It may have lain mysterious and hidden in the souls of the faithful, so that the world knew it not--in faithful souls who, mingling with sinners of the most flagrant type, yet preserved to their last breath the Treasure of the Faith and the Eternal Hope. It was there in the narrow cell of a convent, and in the caverns of the Cevennes, in those humble men, those little ones of earth’s passing show, who would not bend the knee to Baal. And that is why the Church has lived. That is why she still lives, saved by her Divine Chief, who watches over her, and preserves her.

3. I have said, too, that Christ consoles. It is here that men may see, if they choose, the immutable nature of His work. It is attested beyond all doubt, not by the happiest of men, but by the most afflicted--Jesus Christ consoles. He has shown us an object in grief which makes it endurable. He lightens death with an eternal hope. He tells us of a sympathy profound, immense, infinite. And this is not an hypothesis. It is a reality we experience every hour, every minute. The blind only can deny that this consolation exists. That Christ is unchangeable--let us take, then, this thought as a great power in our faith, a great consolation for our hearts, a great encouragement for our active and militant Christianity. Christ is always the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. He was here yesterday, He will be here to-morrow. His wealth of tenderness and of sympathy is always the same. He will be here in all possible troubles. He will be with us in the last moments of weakness, in the last sigh of agony. He will be with us to the very end. We are under the protection of an unchanging Power. When Charlemagne had reconstructed the political edifice of the

Caesars, when he had gathered together under his victorious sceptre Germany and Helvetia, Italy and Gaul, the astonished world gazed upon this empire, which extended from the banks of the Baltic to the Pyrenees, and from the Alps to the Ocean. It happened that one day the old Emperor, satiated with glory, sat at a window in his palace on the banks of the Seine, and suddenly his eyes filled with tears. Being asked why he was sad, he pointed to the fields and the vines which the Norman pirates had devastated as they went up the river, and he said: “If they will do this while I live, what will they do when I am dead?” All! what will they do after me? It is the last cry of the great ones of the earth, whether they be called Alexander or Caesar, Charlemagne or Napoleon. It is the last cry of great thinker: like Plato and Spinoza, Leibnitz and Hegel: “What will they do when I am dead?” Imminent change, like a constant menace--heirs to succeed us who may destroy what we have gathered. But we serve an unchanging Master. It has pleased God, says the prophet, that Eternal Empire should rest on His shoulders. Those shoulders will not bend, and that empire will subsist for ever. In this hope, in this faith, in this rest, in this communion of the Universal Church, let us sing the Te Deum of the Christians of old, “Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.” (E. Bersier, D. D.)

Sameness without monotony:When these words were written they meant: Jesus Christ of to-day (the Gospel

day) is the same as Jehovah of yesterday (the Old Testament day). Does not this enlarge our views, ennobling not the Master Himself, but our conception of Him? Now we know who walked with Enoch, who wrestled with Jacob, who walked with Abraham, who revealed Himself to Moses, who led His people like a shepherd--Jesus, the same yesterday and to-day. Always the same. The only (real) difference is the atmosphere through which He is viewed. I used to stay in Cumberland, and right away in line with the street, twenty miles distant, was a grand and venerable mountain-Skiddaw--always there, always the same, and yet different every day, every hour. Some days, however, it could not be seen. Clouds rolled between, but it was there, all the same. Other days it seemed close at hand, seen through the atmosphere that precedes rain, when distant objects grow near--a peculiar sombre atmosphere; then the mountain almost overshadowed one with its solemn grandeur. And some days, when the earth was deluged with golden light, and as sunbeams fell athwart the mountain, it seemed further away and yet much nearer, its details startling in their far-away

distinctness. Always there, always the same; and yet, how different! Thus we are reminded not only of the sameness of Christ, but the infinite variety--may I reverently say?--the infinite novelty in Him. In Him there is sameness without monotony. How different from ourselves I We weary one another with our sameness. We repeat the same commonplaces in our conversation; we write the same things in our letters; we utter the same platitudes in our religious exercises--and God has more patience with us than we have with each other. Yet now and then we meet with a man about whom there is continually something new; who is always the same, and yet never twice alike; who always seems to have a chapter in reserve; whose life, as we know it better, ever unfolds in a way that charms the senses, enlightens the understanding, and warms the heart. Think of such a man, superior to all you know, and for whose engaging friendship you sometimes think you would give all you have. Yet even he would weary many. And at best he is a cipher, when contrasted with Him in whom is all the fulness of the Godhead and all the perfection of humanity. Even His enemies never grow tired of Him. And that “ for ever”: who shall say what it will reveal to us? Yesterday and to-day are ample guarantee of what to-morrow will be. Yesterday--Old Testament day and imperfect dispensation- what variety! Many a dreary life would be charmed by a study of the Old Testament alone, with its infinite variety of light and shadow. To-day--Gospel day--who can read the books, who can see all the pictures, who can hear allthe music; who can measure all the good inspired by Him, who maketh all things new?

I. THE SAME COMPANION. What beautiful glimpses we have of the companionship of yesterday, almost tempting us to wish that we had lived then instead of to-day. But yesterday is so vividly pictured in the Gospels that we may know what to expect to-day. Yesterday Jesus began His mission at a homely gathering--a wedding party--changing water into wine and disappointment into gladness. And even when He did not speak or work, how eloquent and comforting would be that silent presence and companionship. Christ in the house, Christ in the home, the same to-day as yesterday. Think what he must have been in His mother’s home for thirty years. And, lest we should be discouraged at the thought, we have the assurance that our association with Him may be real and close and beautiful (Matthew 12:49-50). Yesterday He took the little one up in arms laid his hands upon them, and blessed them. And, no doubt, this is given as a sample of what He often did. Is He the same to-day? What means the band of 500,000 Sunday-school teachers (in our own country alone)

every Sunday afternoon gathering around them some 5,000,000 scholars, and, without pay, telling those children the old, old story? What is meant by all the entrancing books and papers published for children to-day?--Jesus Christ, the same Friend of childhood to-day as yesterday; no longer embracing two or three children in the Temple cloister, but a great multitude that no man can number.

II. THE SAME TEACHER. “Lo! I am with you alway.” Is He not ascended up on high? Yet to an eminence where all can see Him. When on earth, He said, “The Son of man which is in heaven.” If in heaven when on earth, surely on earth when in heaven.

III. THE SAME SAVIOUR. Yesterday the blind received their sight, the deaf were made to hear, the lame to walk, the leper to rejoice as he escaped a living death. All this free, without money, without price, and never one case refused. Jesus--“Saviour”--is the same to-day, and none dare point to a case and say it is too desperate for Him. Yesterday He recalled the maiden scarcely cold in death, the young man some time longer dead, and Lazarus far within the portals of death. Even concerning the body alone, when the Christian considers the marvels of surgery to-day, the progress of nursing, and matters pertaining to health and food, he is bound to ascribe them all to Him who went about doing good to body and soul alike. We feel that the miracles of to-day would not be experienced had not the Saviour come down to this poor, sin-stricken world--if He did not abide in it still. Philosophy and civilisation had their chance for ages to show what the world could do without a Divine Saviour. Last, but not least--in some way we cannot understand--Christ is the same to-day in His dying love. His sympathy is the same. When the heavens were opened to the seer of Patmos, he beheld that which made him think of a Lamb newly slain, yet slain from the foundation of the world. (M. Eastwood.)The unchangeableness of Christ

I. HE MUST BE ESSENTIALLY DIVINE. 1. The history of all creature existences shows that they are essentially

mutable. 2. The nature of things shows that the uncreated alone can be immutable.

II. His GOSPEL MUST STAND FOR EVER AS THE LIVING EXPRESSION OF HIMSELF.

III. HIS FRIENDS ARE ETERNALLY BLESSED. (Homilist.)Instructions and consolations from the unchangeableness of Christ

I. CONSIDER THE OCCASION OF THESE WORDS.

1. The Hebrews had been blessed with public instructors, who had spoken to them the word of God, and who believed and lived what they taught.

2. They had spoken, bat now they ceased to speak the word of God. Their exemplary edifying conversation was now at an end.

3. Ministers, who have thus spoken the word of God, should be remembered, their faith followed, and the end of their conversation considered.

4. From the caution after our text, “Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines,” it would appear that there were some who endeavoured to turn the Hebrews aside from that purity and simplicity of the gospel which their deceased pastors had inculcated. Even in the primitive Church, tares were sown soon after the wheat, and sprung up in abundance.

II. CONSIDER THE MEANING of my text, and the practical instructions it suggests.

1. The religion of Jesus is ever the same. The doctrines and laws, taught by Christ and His inspired apostles, have been, are, and ever shall be, the only rule of faith and manners.

2. The kind and benevolent affections of Jesus are the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Dispensations of Providence may wear a frowning aspect; clouds and darkness may be round about the Saviour, and hide from His ransomed ones the pleasant light of His countenance; still, however, the love of His heart never expires, never diminishes.

3. The power of Christ is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. (J. Erskine, D. D.)

The uniformity of God in His government:St. Paul gives us a very beautiful idea of God, when he says, “The wisdom of

God is manifold.” The first great cause, the Supreme Being, hath designs infinitely diversified. This appears by the various beings which He hath created, and by the different ways in which He governs them. But, although there be a diversity in the conduct of God, it is always a diversity of wisdom. Whether He creates a material or an intelligent world; whether He forms” celestial or terrestial bodies, men, angels, seraphims, or cherubims; whether He governs the universe by the same, or by different laws; in all cases, and at all times, He acts like a God: He hath only one principle, and that is order. There is a harmony in His perfections, which He never disconcerts.

I. We see in THE ECONOMY OF TIME four remarkable varieties.

1. We see in God’s government of His Church various degrees of light communicated. Compare the time of Moses with that of the prophets, and that of the prophets with that of the evangelists and apostles. In these various degrees of knowledge, communicated by God to men, I see that uniformity which is the distinguishing character of His actions, and the inviolable rule of His government. The same principle that inclined Him to grant a little light to the age of Moses, inclined Him to afford more to the time of the prophets, and the greatest of all to the age in which the evangelists and apostles lived. What is this principle? It is a principle of order, which requires that the object proposed to a faculty be proportioned to this faculty; that a truth proposed to an intelligence be proportioned to this intelligence.

2. What justifies the government of God on one of these articles, on the various degrees of light bestowed on His Church, will fully justify Him in regard to the worship required by Him. Conceive of the Jews, enveloped in matter, loving to see the objects of their worship before their eyes, and, as they said themselves, to have gods going before them. Imagine these gross creatures coming into our assemblies, how could they, being all sense and imagination (so to speak), exercise the better powers of their souls without objects operating on fancy and sense? How could they have made reflection, meditation, and thought, supply the place of hands and eyes, they who hardly knew what it was to meditate? How could they, who had hardly any idea of spirituality, have studied the nature of God abstractly, which yet is the only way of conducting us to a clear knowledge of a spiritual being?

3. The same may be said of the evidences, on which God hath founded the faith of His Church. What a striking difference! Formerly the Church saw sensible miracles, level to the weakest capacities; at present our faith is founded on a chain of principles and consequences which find exercise for the most penetrating geniuses. How many times have infidels reproached us on account of this difference! Represent to yourselves the whole world let loose against Christians; imagine the primitive disciples required to believe the heavenly origin of a religion, which called them first to be baptized in water, then in blood. How necessary were miracles in these adverse times, and how hard, with all the encouragement given by them,

must the practice of duty be then! Weigh these circumstances against yours, and the balance will appear more equal than ye have imagined.

4. In like manner we observe a similar uniformity in the various laws prescribed to the Church. At all times, and in all places, God required His Church to love Him with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind: but He did not inform His people at all times and in all places the manner in which He required love to express itself. Expressions of love must be regulated by ideas of Deity;. Ideas of Deity are more or less pure as God reveals Himself more or less clearly.

5. Our fifth article is intended to justify the various conditions in which it hath pleased God to place His Church. At one time the Church enjoys temporal pomp and felicity, at another it is exposed to whatever the world can invent of misery and ignominy. Let us reason in regard to the Church in general, as we reason in regard to each private member of it. Do you think (I speak now to each individual) there is a dungeon so deep, a chain so heavy, a misery so great, a malady so desperate, that God cannot deliver you, were your deliverance suitable to the eminence of His perfections? Why, then, doth He at any time reduce us to these dismal extremities? Order requires God, who intends to save you, to employ those means, which are most likely to conduct you to salvation, or, if you refuse to profit by them, to harden you under them. He wills your salvation, and therefore He removes all your obstacles to salvation. Let us reason in regard to the Church in general, as we do in regard to the individuals who compose it. A change in the condition of the Church doth not argue any change in the attributes of God. The same eminence of perfections which engageth Him sometimes to make all concur to the prosperity of His Church, engageth Him at other times to unite all adversities against it.

II. We have considered Jesus Christ in the economy of time, now let us consider Him in THE ECONOMY OF ETERNITY. We shall see in this, as in the former, that harmony of perfections, that uniformity of government, which made our apostle say, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” The same principle that formed His plan of human government in the economy of time, will form a plan altogether different in that” of eternity. The same principle of proportion which inclines Him to confine our faculties within a narrow circle during this life, will incline Him infinitely to extend the sphere of them in a future state. The same principle which induces Him now to communicate Himself to us in a

small degree, will then induce Him to communicate Himself to us in a far more eminent degree. The same principle that inclines Him now to assemble us in material buildings, to cherish our devotion by exercises savouring of the frailty of our state, by the singing of psalms, and by the participation of sacraments, will incline Him hereafter to cherish it by means more noble, more sublime, better suited to the dignity of our origin and to the price Of our redemption. The same principle which inclines Him to involve us now in indigence, misery, contempt, sickness, and death, will then induce Him to free us from all these ills, and to introduce us into that happy state where there will be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, and where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes. Proportion requires that intelligent creatures should be some time in a state of probation, and this is the nature of the present dispensation: but the same law of proportion requires also, that after intelligent creatures have been some time in a state of trial, and have answered the end of their being placed in such a state, there should be a state of retribution in an eternal economy. By this truth let us regulate our faith, our morality, and our ideas of our future destiny.

1. Our faith. Let us adore only one God, and let us acknowledge in Him only one perfection, that is to say, a harmony, which results from all His perfections. If this idea be impressed on our minds, our faith will never be shaken, at least it will never be destroyed by the vicissitudes of the world, or by those of the Church. Why? Because we shall be fully convinced, that the vicissitudes of both proceed from the same cause, I mean the immutability of that God who saith by the mouth of one of His prophets, “I, the Lord, change not.”

2. God hath only one principle of His actions, that is proportion, order, fitness of things. Let love of order be the principle of all your actions; it is the character of a Christian, and would to God it were the character of all my hearers. A Christian hath only one principle of action. In Scripture-style this disposition of mind is called “walking with God,” “setting the Lord always before us.” Glorious character of a Christian, always uniform and like himself! He does nothing, if I may be allowed to speak so, but arrange his actions differently, as his circumstances vary.

3. Finally, this idea of God is very proper to regulate that of your future destiny. Do we wish for a full assurance of a claim to eternal happiness? Let us then by our conduct form an inseparable relation between our eternal felicity and the invariable perfections of that God who changeth

not; let us spare no pains to arrive at that happy state, let us address to God our most fervent prayers to engage Him to bless the efforts which we make to enjoy it; and, after we have seriously engaged in this great work, let us fear nothing. (J. Saurin.)

The unchanging SaviourI. WHAT IS DENIED. It is denied that either time, or mood, or circumstances, or

provocation, or death, can alter Jesus Christ our Lord. 1. Time changes us. Your portrait, taken years ago, when you were in your

prime, hangs on the walls of your home. You sometimes sadly contrast it with your present self. Then the face was unseamed by care, unscarred by conflict; but now how weary and furrowed! The upright form is bent, the step has lost its spring. But there is a greater difference between two mental than physical portraitures. Opinions alter. And sometimes the question arises, Can time alter Him whose portrait hangs on the walls of our hearts, painted in undying colours by the hands of the four Evangelists? Of course, time takes no effect on God, who is the I AM, eternal and changeless. But Jesus is man as well as God. He has tenses in His being: the yesterday of the past, the to-day of the present, the to-morrow of the future. It is at least a question whether His human nature, keyed to the experiences of man, may not carry with it, even to influence His royal heart, that sensitiveness to the touch of time which is characteristic of our race. But the question tarries only for a second. Time is foiled in Jesus. He has passed out of its sphere, and is impervious to its spell.

2. Moods change us. We know people who are oranges one day, and lemons the next; now a summer’s day, and, again, a nipping frost; rock and reed alternately. You have to suit yourself to their varying mood, asking to-day what you would not dare to mention to-morrow; and thus there is a continual unrest and scheming in the hearts of their friends. But it is not so with Jesus. Never tired, or put out, or variable.

3. Circumstances change us. Men who in poverty and obscurity have been accessible and genial, become haughty when idolised for their genius and fawned on for their wealth. New friends, new spheres, new surroundings alter men marvellously. What a change has passed over Jesus Christ, since mortal eyes beheld Him. Crowned with glory and honour; seated at the right hand of the Father. Can this be He who was despised, an

outcast, and a sufferer? R is indeed He. But surely it were too much to expect that He should be quite the same? Nay, but He is. And one proof of it is that the graces which He shed on the first age of the Church were of exactly the same quality as those which we now enjoy. We know that the texture of light is unaltered, because the analysis of a ray, which has just reached us from some distant star, whence it started as Adam stepped across the threshold of Eden, is of precisely the same nature as the analysis of the ray of light now striking on this page. And we know that Jesus Christ is the same as He was, because the life which throbbed in the first believers, resulted in those very fruits which are evident in our hearts and lives, all having emanated from Himself.

4. Sin and provocation change us. Our souls close up to those who have deceived our confidence. But sin cannot change Christ’s heart, though it may affect His behaviour. If it could do so, it must have changed His feelings to Peter. But the only apparent alteration made by that sad denial was an increased tenderness.

II. WHAT IS AFFIRMED. 1. He is the same in His person (Hebrews 1:12). His vesture alters. He has

exchanged the gaberdine Of the peasant for the robes of which He stripped Himself on the eve of His incarnation; but beneath those robes beats the same heart as heaved with anguish at the grave where His friend lay dead.

2. He is also the same in His office (Hebrews 7:24). Unweariedly He pursues His chosen work as the Mediator, Priest, and Intercessor of men.

III. WHAT IT IMPLIES. It implies that He is God. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)Jesus Christ immutable

I. First, the personal names of our Lord here mentioned--“JESUS CHRIST.” “Jesus” stands first. That is our Lord’s Hebrew name, “Jesus,” or, “Joshua.” The word signifies, a Saviour, “for He shall save His people from their sins.” It was given to Him in His cradle. Jesus in the manger deserves to be called the Saviour, for when it can be said that “ the tabernacle of God is with men, and He doth dwell among them,” there is hope that all good things will be given to the fallen race. He was called Jesus in His childhood--“The Holy Child Jesus.” He was Jesus, too, and is commonly called so both by His foes and by His friends in His active life. It is as Jesus the Saviour that He heals the sick. But He comes out most clearly as Jesus when dying on the cross; named so in a writing, “Jesus of

Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” There preeminently was He the Saviour, being made a curse for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Still bearing the name of Jesus, our Lord rose from the dead. He is a Saviour for us since He vanquished the last enemy that shall be destroyed, that we, having been saved from sin by His death, should be saved from death through His resurrection. Jesus is the title under which He is called in glory, for “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” As Jesus He shall shortly come, and we are “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” There are two words in the name Jesus. The one is a contraction of the word “Jehovah,” the other is the word which I have just now explained to you as ultimately coming to mean “salvation.” Taken to pieces, the word Jesus means Jehovah salvation. You have the glorious essence and nature of Christ revealed to you as Jehovah, “I am that I am,” and then you have in the second part of His name His great work for you in setting you at large and delivering you from all distress. Now reverently consider the second title--Christ. That is a Greek name, a Gentile name--Anointed. So that you see you have the Hebrew Joshua, Jesus, then theGreek Christos, Christ; so that we may see that no longer is there either Jew or Gentile, but all are one in Jesus Christ. The word Christ, as you all know, signifies anointed, and as such our Lord is sometimes called “the Christ,” “the very Christ”; at other times “the Lord’s Christ,” and sometimes “the Christ of God.” He is the Lord’s Anointed, our King, and our Shield. This word “Christ” teaches us three great truths.

1. It indicates His offices. He exercises offices in which anointing is necessary, and these are three: the office of the King, of the Priest, and of the Prophet. But it means more than that.

2. The name Christ declares His right to those offices. He is not King because He sets Himself up as such. God has set Him as King upon His holy hill of Zion, and anointed Him to rule. He is also Priest, but He has not taken the priesthood upon Himself, for He is the propitiation whom God has set forth for human sin. He comes not as a prophet who assumes office, but God hath anointed Him to preach glad tidings to the poor, and to come among His people with the welcome news of eternal love.

3. Moreover, this anointing signifies that as He has the office, and as it is His by right, so He has the qualifications for the work.

II. His MEMORABLE ATTRIBUTES. Looking at the Greek, one notices that it might be read thus, “Jesus Christ Himself yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” The anointed Saviour is always Himself. He is always Jesus Christ; and the word “same “ seems to me to bear the most intimate relation to the two titles of the text, and does as good as say that Jesus Christ is always Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. If the goodly fellowship of the prophets could be here to-day, they would all testify to you that He was the same in every office in their times as He is in these our days.

1. Jesus Christ is the same now as He was in times gone by, for the text saith, “The same yesterday, and to-day.” He is the same to-day as He was from old eternity. Before all worlds He planned our salvation; He entered into covenant with His Father to undertake it. Whatever was in the heart of Christ before the stars began to shine, that same infinite love is there to-day. Jesus is the same to-day as He was when He was here on earth. When He tabernacled among men, He was most willing to save. Blessed be His name, Jesus Christ is the same to-day as in apostolic days. Then, He gave the fulness of the Spirit. We have had great enjoyments of God’s presence; we do remember the love of our espousals, and if we have not the same joys to-day, it is no fault of His. There is the same water in the well still, and if we have not drawn it, it is our fault.

2. Now, further, Christ shall be to-morrow what He has been yesterday and is to-day. Our Lord Jesus Christ will be changed in no respect throughout the whole of our life.

III. OUR LORD’S EVIDENT CLAIMS. 1. If our Lord be “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” then,

according to the connection of our text, He is to be followed to the end. If the Lord is still the same, follow Him till you reach Him. Your exit out of this life shall bring you where He is, and you will find Him then what He always was.

2. The next evident claim of Christ upon us is that we should be steadfast in the faith. Notice the ninth verse: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.”

3. If Jesus Christ be thus immutable, He has an evident claim to our” most solemn worship. Immutability can be the attribute of none but God.

4. He claims also of us next, that we should trust Him. If He be always the same, here is a rock that cannot be moved; build on it.

5. And, lastly, if He is always the same, rejoice in Him, and rejoice always. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The unchanging Saviour:Changing circumstances have great power to work changes in character.

There are few things more admirable than the spectacle of a good man passing through many chequered experiences, and keeping himself unchanged, excepting that his piety shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. This, like all other moral beauty and glory, was found in the Son of man, as it has been found in none besides.

I. HIS EARTHLY LIFE LEFT HIS LOVE UNCHANGED. His course was one long trial, from the manger to the cross. What His love was when it went into that furnace, that it was when it came out; not so much as “the smell of fire upon it.”

II. DEATH WROUGHT CHANGE IN HIS LOVE. His subjection to its power was real and complete. It would be easy to take up the history of “ the great forty days,” and show that in word and deed Christ proved that His character was in every respect what it had been before He passed through the mysteries of death,

III. EXALTATION TO HEAVENLY POWER AND GLORY WROUGHT NO CHANGE IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST. Since He has been at the right hand of God, He has four times visibly revealed Himself to men on the earth, and each revelation has been for a merciful purpose. To Stephen, to Paul, to John, to the Seven Churches. (C. Vince.)Jesus Christ ever the same:

I. IN RESPECT OF THE TRUTH OF WHICH HE IS THE TEACHER. In this respect Divine truth differs materially from human science. Science is tentative and experimental. In the light of the nineteenth century the scientists and philosophers of bygone ages seem little better than jugglers. And though some of the axioms of scientific teaching maintain their hold, yet the most accomplished students of the phenomena of life are ever hesitant and reserved. Nothing more vividly illustrates the unchangeableness of Divine truth than the ever changing phases of unbelief, and the ever varying tactics of its opponents. Theological development does not involve new truths. A deeper experience, a profounder study, a growth of intelligence, may invest a well-worn truth with fresh significance and beauty, just as the practised hand of the lapidary can develop the latent brilliance of a gem--each fresh operation discovering new tints, new possibilities of lustre. Biblical criticism may illumine an obscure passage; single words here and there may be touched with new life; but the cardinal verities

remain changeless and unalterable. The unchanging truth, while it is our safety, is our confidence. Whatever changes, the doctrines to which we have yielded our faith will never change. Whatever fails, the truth shall not fail.

II. IN RESPECT OF THE METHODS OF HIS ADMINISTRATION. III. IN RESPECT OF THE RESOURCES AT HIS COMMAND (Matthew 28:18-

20). Anticipating this glorious investment, the Psalmist sang long before of “gifts for men,” which were to be the prerogative of the ascended Lord. There is nothing to warrant the theory that these gifts were temporary, that they were limited to any particular age or crisis, or that they were distinctive of certain aspects only of the Messianic reign. It was of Himself, as thus endowed with “all power,” that the Lord said, in charging His followers with their great commission: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” It is impossible now to indicate the many-sided aspects of His mediatorial power. The word “all” defies exhaustion. He can shape the course of history and open doors which prejudice and enmity have closed. By the viewless ministrations of His Spirit He can prepare the minds of men for the reception of saving truth. He can endow the holy life with wealth, and inspire a generosity which will rise to every emergency. He can raise up and qualify men for every branch of Christian service: the heroes of the mission-field, the inventors and administrators of Church economy, the mighty preachers of all ages have been just what He made them. (R. N. Young, D. D.)The immutable mercy of Jesus Christ

I. THE CENTRE IS JESUS CHRIST. Jesus was His proper name, Christ His appellative. Jesus a name of His nature, Christ of His office and dignity. Jesus, a name of all sweetness. A Reconciler, a Redeemer, a Saviour. When the conscience wrestles with law, sin, death, there is nothing but horror and despair without Jesus. The Word of God, the Son of God, the Christ of God, are titles of glory; Jesus, a Saviour, is a title of grace, mercy, redemption. This Jesus Christ is the centre of this text; and not only of this, but of the whole Scripture. The sum of Divinity is the Scripture; the sum of the Scripture is the gospel; the sum of the gospel is Jesus Christ.

II. THE REFERRING LINE, PROPER TO THIS CENTRE, IS “THE SAME.” There is no mutability in Christ; “no variableness, nor shadow of turning” James 1:17). All lower lights have their inconstancy; but in the “Father of lights” there is no changeableness.

1. This dissuades our confidence in worldly things because they are inconstant. All vanities are but butterflies, which wanton children greedily catch for; and sometimes they fly beside them, sometimes before them, sometimes behind them, sometimes close by them; yea, through their fingers, and yet they miss them; and when they have them, they are but butterflies; they have painted wings, but are crude and squalid worms.

2. This persuades us to an imitation of Christ’s constancy. Let the stableness of His mercy to us work a stableness of our love to Him. And howsoever, like the lower orbs, we have a natural motion of our own from good to evil, yet let us suffer the higher power to move us supernaturally from evil to good.

III. THE CIRCUMFERENCE. 1. Objectively. Jesus Christ is the same in His word; and that 2. Subjectively, in His power the same; and that 3. Effectually in His grace and mercy. So He is the same,

The changelessness of Christ:Sameness is not a quality of things much loved for its own sake. In common

things we soon grow wearied of sameness, and the whole earthly system of things is founded on the principle of variety and change. In what department of this universe shall we find immobility? Take your stand on the quietest day in the stillest place you can find--change is going on around you with every moment of time, so restless is nature down to its very heart. The same law holds in providence. Indeed, there could be no providence without change; no providing and no rule would be possible if no new circumstances arose. The same constitution of things holds in the higher sphere of man’s moral progress and religious life. We make progress only in change--we put off the old and put on the new--we learn and unlearn--we fall and rise again; and as nature and providence are never the same on two successive days, so our souls are never in exactly the same moral state on one day as they were on the day before. The prayer of every Christian heart is: “Oh! unchanging One, let me change from day to day, until I gain Thine image and reach Thy presence!” And may we not believe this to be the prayer of angels too? Are they not thirsting for change “ from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord? “And yet many hearts thrill with a sacred joy on hearing the words, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” How comes it that when we are pleased and profited by variety everywhere else, we are conscious of a sublime satisfaction in finding fixedness here? Is it not

because we are created to find rest and portion only in God? Behind all changes in nature we press to unchanging power and law, and feel that these can reside only in an unchanging God. The text is a declaration of the immutability of Jesus Christ, and so takes for granted His divinity. It can be said of no creature that he is the same yesterday and to-day. That language can only have reference to a Divine Being, and it can only he with regard to His Divine qualities that Jesus Christ can be said to be immutable. In fact, He is not the same yesterday and to-day in the forms and aspects of His existence. In these there has been great change. He was “with God,” then with man, now with God again. In regard to these visible, sensible manifestations, Jesus Christ is different to-day from what He was yesterday, and (we speak with reverence), for anything said in the Scriptures, He may be different to-morrow from what He is to-day. Some such change may be suggested in 1   Corinthians 15:24 ; 1   Corinthians 15:28 . But these mortal, formal changes, whatever they are, do not affect the substantial meaning of the text. Jesus Christ, in all that constitutes His personality and in all that pertains to His character, is the same, and cannot change. In His will, in His purposes, in His principles, in His affections, He is for ever the same. These things constitute being and character, and these in Him are without change. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)The unchanging Christ

I. I apply these words as a New Year’s motto, in two or three different directions, and ask you to consider, first, THE UNCHANGING CHRIST IN HIS RELATION TO OUR CHANGEFUL LIVES. The one thing of which anticipation may be sure is that nothing continues in one stay. Blessed are they who, in a world of passing phenomena, penetrate to the still centre of rest, and looking over all the vacillations of the things that can be shaken, can turn to the Christ and say, Thou who movest all things art Thyself unmoved; Thou who changest all things, Thyself changest not. Let the fleeting proclaim to you the permanent; let the world with its revolutions lead you up to the thought of Him that is the same for ever. For that is the only thought on which a man can build, and, building, be at rest. The yesterday of my text may either be applied to the generations that have passed, and then the “to-day” is our little life; or it may be applied to my own yesterday, and then the to-day is this narrow present. In either application the words of my text are full of hope and of joy. “Jesus Christ is the same to-day.” We are always tempted to think that this moment is commonplace and insignificant. Yesterday lies consecrated in memory; to-morrow, radiant in

hope; but to-day is poverty-stricken and prose. The sky is furthest away from us right over our heads; behind and in front it seems to touch the earth. But if we will only realise that all that sparkling lustre and all that more than mortal tenderness of pity and of love with which Jesus Christ has irradiated and sweetened any past is verily here with us amidst the commonplaces and insignificant duties of the dusty to-day, then we need look back to no purple distance, nor forward to any horizon where sky and earth kiss, but feel that here or nowhere, now or never, is Christ the all-sufficient and unchanging Friend. He is faithful. He cannot deny Himself.

II. So, secondly, I apply these words in another direction. I ask you to think of THE RELATION BETWEEN THE UNCHANGING CHRIST AND THE DYING HELPERS. God’s changeful providence comes into all our lives, and parts dear ones, making their places empty that Christ Himself may fill the empty places, and, striking away other props, though the tendrils that twine round them bleed with the wrench, in order that the plant may no longer trail along the ground, but twine itself round the Cross and climb to the Christ upon the throne. He lives, and in Him all loves and companionships live unchanged.

III. So, further, we apply, in the third place, this thought to THE RELATION BETWEEN THE UNCHANGING CHRIST AND DECAYING INSTITUTIONS AND OPINIONS. Man’s systems are the shadows on the hillside. Christ is the everlasting solemn mountain itself. Much in the popular conception of Christianity is in the act of passing. Let it go; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. We need not fear change within the limits of His Church or of His world. For change there means progress, and the more the human embodiments of Christian truth disintegrate, the more distinctly does the solemn unique figure of Christ the same rise before us. His sameness is consistent with an infinite unfolding of new preciousness and new powers, as new generations with new questions arise, and the world seeks for fresh guidance. “I write no new commandment unto you”; I preach no new Christ unto you. “Again a new commandment I write unto you,” and every generation will find new impulse, new teaching, new shaping energies, social and individual, ecclesiastical, theological, intellectual, in the old Christ who was crucified for our offences and raised again for our justification, and remains “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”

IV. Lastly, look at these words in their application to THE RELATION BETWEEN THE UNCHANGING CHRIST AND THE ETERNAL LOVE OF HEAVEN. The “for ever” of my text is not to be limited to this present life, but it

runs on into the remotest future and boundless prospect of an eternal unfolding and reception of new beauties in the old earthly Christ. For Him the change between the “to-day” of His earthly life and the “ for ever” of His ascended glory made no change in the tenderness of His heart, the sweetness of His smile, the nearness of His helping hand. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)Yesterday and to-day:

Employing the word “yesterday” to represent past time in general, we ask, who beside Jesus Christ is the same to-day as yesterday? Yesterday our fathers and our mothers were young, and hale, and strong--to-day they lean towards the earth like half-felled trees, or they lie prostrate as trees wholly cut down. Yesterday the hair of the husband was black as a raven--to-day it is white as wool. Yesterday the children were like olive plants round about the table--to-day one is not, another withers in the place that still knows him, and others are transplanted to a foreign soil. Yesterday kindred and friends were a wide social circle--to-day but a poor segment of that circle is left. And these changes will continue--not absolutely, and for ever, but to-morrow, and for days in succession, until the last man, and the last day. And with the changes to which men are subject is associated mutation, which, like waves flowing over sand, affects the condition and appearance of all things. Yet here, where nothing is abiding but change--here where we “should imagine that we should get accustomed to change--we are always sighing for that which is the same to-day as yesterday, and which will be the same for ever. The Divine in Jesus Christ is ever the same, His power in heaven, in earth, and in hell--His knowledge--all that hath been, all that is, and all that will be--His wisdom for device and design, for ruling and over-ruling, for ordering all beings and things--His presence in all places--His spotless purity, and undeviating righteousness--His unbounded love--are all “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” The humanity ofJesus Christ is in all its essential features the same. Eighteen centuries ago it was said of Him that “He manifested forth His glory.” This glory--the fulness of grace and truth--is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” And is He the same in His devotedness to the work of redemption? Yesterday that work was His. He gave Himself to it in the beginning; undertook it when man fell; made ready for His advent during four thousand years; came in the fulness of time. He came to live as a man--He did live as a man. He came to suffer as a substitute. He came here, not to stay, but to return. Yesterday Jesus Christ did all this--and what of to-day? To-day I This is the favourable time--this is the day of Jesus Christ’s

salvation. And for ever will Jesus Christ be our Redeemer. “Of His kingdom there shall be no end.” “He continueth ever.” “He hath an unchangeable priesthood.” “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” “He shall reign for ever and ever.” He has made great promises to His disciples. He has said that they shall never hunger and shall never thirst, they shall never die, they shall do great works, they shall not abide in darkness, they shall have peace, they shall join Christ in His glory. Will He fulfil these words? Can He? In disposition to fulfil them, and in power, Jesus Christ “ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” He is the revealer of what the apostle Paul calls present truth--and in His exhibition of that which it is essential for us to know, and essential for us to believe, He changeth not. Still, too, He assures His disciples, “I will come again.” He said this yesterday. And to-day many of you are found among those who wait for His appearing, and who love His appearing--and as the vision seems to tarry, and as the time appears to be delayed, often do you hear Him say, “I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” Jesus Christ is the same in His influence upon those who believe in Him. Yesterday it was testified, “The love of Christ constraineth us “-it carries us out of the course of the world. To-day, moved by His love, multitudes are acting and suffering as those only can work and endure who live, not unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again. And what say you of His love? His eye is the same--bright as a flame of fire, and strong enough to view all things, whether great or small. His ear is the same--quick and sensitive; embracing the harmonies of creation, and receiving at the same time the whisper of a little one’s prayer. His hand is the same--strong even to almightiness. And His heart is the same--sympathetic, patient, generous, tender as a woman’s, strong in its personal attachment, and filled with a love which surpasseth knowledge. In all respects, and in all aspects, Jesus Christ is “ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” To-day, brethren, Jesus Christ is the same as when Peter and Johu rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name”--not counted worthy to wear some crown for His name, unless the crown be a crown of thorns, but “ that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” Then to-day let us boldly confess Him. To-day Jesus Christ is the same as when Paul said, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that day.” Then let us with all our heart confide in Him to-day. Let us renew our confidence. Let us give everything up to Him, ourselves and our all. To-day Jesus Christ is the same as when He

said, “I am the vine; ye are the branches.” Then let us abide in Him to-day. To-day Jesus Christ is the same as when it was said, “We are all one in Christ Jesus.” Then let us to-day promote the manifestation of the true unity of all believers. (S. Martin.)The unchanging Christ

I. Follow for a moment THE SUGGESTIONS OF TRUE CONTEXT remember those who exercised a blessed, loving, wise “ rule “ over you, who “ spake to you the Word of God,” pastors, parents, friends; those who first interpreted to you your soul’s yearning and restlessness, and pointed you to Christ for rest; the true and trusty ones who warned you against your dangers, and helped you in your temptations, and solaced you in your griefs; who seemed to read your life, and could speak the very words you needed. Death, or separation, or mutual alienation and distrust put an end to their guidance. Alas that association so blessed should have had an end.

II. The longing for rest, the desire for what is stable and unchanging--THIS IS OUR DEEPEST WANT IT STRENGTHENS IN US AS WE GROW OLDER, WISER, BETTER MEN. When our impatience has been tamed, and our impetuosity has become subdued; when we have learned to distrust ourselves, and wish for an immutable goodness on which to stay; when we have learned to distrust the world, to look away from things and circumstances; after we have felt weariness and disappointment, we grow to value quiet. Youth will wander and explore; but manhood asks a home wherein to dwell. But a coming rest is not all we ask; is life all to be weary and changing? must we ever be restless? Our text speaks of One who is even now unchanging. All is not fleeting, Christ is the same. What changes need we now fear? We may be troubled, but we cannot be daunted; surprised, but not unmanned. The deep reality of life abides the same; Jesus Christ the same to-day as yesterday.

III. THE WORDS “FOR EVER” FALL STRANGELY ON OUR EARS THE SOLEMN FUTURE IS UNKNOWN AND UNIMAGINABLE. Here I can work, here I can feel, here I am somewhat at home; but that world will be so unutterably strange. Again the thought of the immutable One bears up out of the confusion of changing things. There will be more familiarity than strangeness there, for “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” He will not be unknown; He will be recognised who quickened, and guided, and sustained us, who was the steadfastness and identity of our passing earthly life. To those Christians who would read the words translated “for ever” in their original form,

“unto the ages,” they would have a further suggestion. They were accustomed to look on God’s purpose in the universe as unfolding itself in a series of aeons or dispensations. It had been so in the history of this world; they themselves were living in the end of one dispensation, the old world passing away; a new world, another age, was immediately commencing. Words had come to them from the heavens of old, obscurely referring to at least one other dispensation that had accomplished itself before man was created. Paul speaks of worlds and epochs, of which we now know nothing, that are all to be gathered together, and seen fulfilled in Christ. In the world to come there may be further dispensations, each fulfilling a thought, and all illustrating the mighty being, of God. Here are changes, grand, stupendous, unimaginable. But in the midst of all is seen one unchanging Christ. Let dispensation succeed dispensation, and age follow age, Jesus Christ is “the same unto the ages.” New they will be, but they will not be strange; the changes will but illustrate the unchangeable.

IV. You will observe that it is not of a thing that is the same, nor even of a truth conceived to be the same, that our text speaks, BUT OF A PERSON WHO IS THE SAME. It is in our personal relations that we feel the identity or the changes of life. Our life continues the same in many vicissitudes, so long as the persons we have to do with are unchanged. Amidst the flux of things, the flow of events, the heart rests on one unchanging friend. We may stand solitary, where once we stood circled with affection, alone but not alone, for He is with us. Truest companion, trustiest guide; He who “laid down His life for His friends”; Jesus Christ is “ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”

V. LET ME SPEAK TO YOU PERSONALLY OF THE UNCHANGING SAVIOUR. Well is it for you who trust in Christ. Sorrow cannot long dim your eyes, for He is the unchanging Comforter. Disappointment cannot quench your hopefulness, for He is the unchanging Hope. Difficulties will not daunt you, for He is the unchanging Helper. You will not sink in weakness, for He is the unchanging Strength. You need not fear temptation, for His is an unchanging succour. Sin will not overmaster you, nor guilt drive you to despair; for He whose blood first cleansed you will cleanse you still, and the ear into which you breathed your first penitence is listening still for your repentant prayer. Death has no terror for you, and the endless ages will not see you shaken; for He is “ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” And you to whom all your life long He has “stretched out His hands”; you who have still rejected Him, you to whom a Christian life has long seemed only a dream in memory, a possibility left far behind; to you too He

is still the same. Your conscience may be sluggish, His voice is powerful to arrest; your heart may have grown hard, His love is strong to melt; your will may have become obdurate, His grace is mighty to subdue. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)The immutability of God:

The unchangeableness of God was taught originally as contrasted with the ever changing views entertained when poets, and mythists, and theologists of antiquity were accustomed to weave just such fancies as they pleased, and twine them about an imaginary God, changing to-day the imaginings of yesterday, as one twines every day fresh flowers about some statue. Without revelation, without even the fixed data which science affords, men formed ideal images and called them God. There was perpetual change. As opposed to such a view of God, a creature of fancy, that changed with all the moods of the imagination, God was declared to be unchangeable. His unchangeableness was also taught as opposed to any change of dynasties. The gods of heathen nations made war with each ether, maintaining themselves by the exertion of force against other gods, so that there were revulsions in high and heavenly places, and reigning dynasties were overthrown. As opposed to such a conception as this, the Bible teaches God to be one, from eternity to eternity, sovereign and immutable. God’s unchangeableness was taught, also, as opposed to the caprice of heathen divinities. The gods of antiquity were shameful, subject to fits of wrath, and to the most fitful changes of the most desperate feelings. The Bible revealed Jehovah, the unchangeable; who, being once known, was for ever to be obeyed, because His commands were equitable and right, and from whom such as learned His will, and followed the path of obedience, had nothing to fear, but everything to hope. What then, are the respects in which God is to be supposed to be immutable?

1. In the first place, no change is to be imputed to Him such as comes to us by reason of age and the wearing of the body. He is not, as men are, changed by time. It is blessed to think of being eternally young; but the thought that, while men are wrinkled, and bent, and scarred by disease, and toil, and suffering, and are subject to all manner of infirmities, there is One that is unchanged by time, and is for ever in the bloom of youth--this thought comes home with sweetness and comfort to every heart.

2. Nor is there any such change possible to God as belongs to men by reason of their external circumstances.

3. Nor is there any change in the great moral attributes which form the basis of the Divine character--justice, and truth, and love. That which was love in the beginning, is love now, and will be love for evermore. Truth and justice are the same now that they were in the beginning, and that they ever will be. The applications of them vary, but the essential moral qualities themselves never change. God is immutable in the fundamental elements of His being.

4. Nor is there any change in the essential purposes of God’s moral government. God saw the end from the beginning; He follows a plan eternally ordained, and the whole vast administration of creation is carried on in pursuance of certain great fixed ideas. In view of these statements, I remark, first, that it is such a view of God as this that inspires confidence and trust in Him. We want to feel that though there are endless variations in goodness and justice, and endless degrees of these things in the Divine mind, yet there is nothing there that traverses justice or good, or that changes these qualities, making that which is evil and unjust in this age just and good in the next age. It has been supposed that the doctrine of God’s decrees would repel men, and drive them into infidelity. On the contrary, it draws men. God’s decrees may be taught so as to make men feel that they are oppressive; but the thought that the decrees of God run through time and eternity, and that He is true to them, so far from being repulsive, is exceedingly attractive. You might as well say that the laws of nature are repulsive, as to say that God’s decrees are so. It is constancy that is the foundation of hope, and civilisation, and everything that is blessed in the world. (H. W. Beecher.)

Jesus always the same:Ah! the time comes when the actor must leave the public stage; when the reins

drop from the leader’s grasp; and the orator’s tongue falters; and the workman’s stout arm grows feeble; and the fire of wit is quenched; and the man of genius turns into a drivelling idiot; and men of understanding, without any second birth, pass into a second childhood. But the time shall never come when it can be said of Jesus, His hand is shortened that it cannot save. No; “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” there is nothing He ever did, in saving, blessing, sanctifying, that He cannot do again. This gives undying value to all the offers, invitations, and promises of the gospel. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)Christ does not change:

Earthly friends are apt to change, and if they do not change they die. When a visitor comes from a foreign land where you once sojourned, you ask eagerly about the different acquaintances you once had there. “And did you see such a one?” “Yes; but you would not know him, he is so greatly altered.” “Did he remember me?” “Well, I rather think he was asking for you, but I cannot be very sure. He has got other things to occupy his thoughts since you and he were wont to meet.” “And what of such another?” “All, times are sadly changed with him. You would be sorry to see him now. I believe he has the same kind heart as ever; but he has not in his power to show it as he was used to do.” “And our old neighbour, who lived next door?” “Your old neighbour? dear good man, he is safe in Abraham’s bosom. I found his house shut up, and all his family gone away.” And it is very seldom, after years of absence, that you hear of one whose outward circumstances are nowise different from what they were, and rarer still to hear of one whose dispositions are quite unchanged. However, One there is who wears our nature, but is not liable to the variations of mortality. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)Experiences may change, but not Christ:

It is a beautiful moonlight night. The moon is at full, and shining in more than ordinary silver brightness. A man is gazing intently down a deep, still well, where he sees the moon reflected, and thus remarks to a friendly bystander: “How beautifully fair and round she is to-night! how quietly and majestically she rides along 1” He has just finished speaking, when suddenly his friend drops a small pebble into the well, and he now exclaims, “Why the moon is all broken to shivers, and the fragments are shaking together in the greatest disorder!” “What gross absurdity! “ is the astonished rejoinder of his companion. “Look up man! the moon hasn’t changed one jot or tittle. It is the condition of the well that reflects her that has changed.” Now, believer, apply the simple figure. Your heart is the well. When there is no allowance of evil the blessed Spirit of God takes of the glories and preciousness of Christ, and reveals them to you for your comfort and joy. But the moment a wrong motive is cherished in the heart, or an idle word escapes the lips unjudged, your happy experiences are smashed to pieces, and you are all restless and disturbed within, until in brokenness of spirit before God you confess your sin (the disturbing thing), and thus get restored once more to the calm, sweet joy of communion. But when your heart is thus all unrest, need I ask, Has Christ’s work changed? No, no. (G. Cutting.)

Verse 9Hebrews 13:9

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrinesEvils of a state of scepticism

It would seem hardly to be expected, where ample means of religious knowledge are enjoyed, that such a state of mind should be a common thing.Of those who are educated under religious light, and who are led in early life to accept Christianity, a very considerable number sooner or later reach a state in which they are disposed to question almost anything pertaining to religion. More commonly this crisis arrives in advanced youth, or on the verge of manhood. Up to that time the mind has been content to take as truth, on the authority of others, and with but little question, whatever may have been taught it. It has acquiesced, without serious difficulty, in the statements of parents and teachers as to what were the claims of duty. But now there comes a change. Of the views and impressions which childhood entertained on a variety of subjects, advancing years and knowledge have shown many to be erroneous. In this state of mind the inquirer is inclined to question everything, as he once was to believe everything. He has found a few things, or, if you please, many things, to be false, and so he is afraid to believe that anything is true. He passes, by a not unnatural process, from the extreme of credulity to the extreme of scepticism. At this point one of three things must happen: either the mind must become utterly lost to truth, and settle itself on the ultimately fatal grounds of false opinion; or it must drift on unfixed, full of uncertainty, or, it must lay hold of the strong cable of sound evidence, and deliberately cast anchor on the sure foundations of the truth. There are doubtless some who do succeed in confirming themselves in falsehood beyond the chance of recovery. We are sure, also, that there are those who gain a hold on truth which nothing can relax, and which permanently sets their hearts at rest. But how large a number fall into the intermediate class, the class of perpetual doubters!--and are carried about by diverse and strange doctrines, always catching at a new absurdity to relieve the weariness of dwelling on the last. What can be more deplorable than this unnatural, this morbid bewilderment of the soul? Such a state is, of all things, to be dreaded.

1. For, in the first place, it must needs be an exceedingly unhappy state. To all minds that have received even a moderate degree of cultivation, it is a source of positive pleasure to have, on all important subjects, clear views and well-defined opinions. So, on the contrary, it is painful to the sound

mind to grope about in the “everlasting fog”--to be threading backward and forward the mazy labyrinths of vague inquiry, which chases shadows and catches at emptiness, finding nothing solid on which it can rely. This, we say, is the constitutional law of the mind, let the subject about which it inquires be what it may. But if the matter in question be one on the right understanding of which great consequences are depending, there must be, in addition to the doubtfulness, the pain of anxious apprehension. The fear of what calamities may soon or late, result from failure to ascertain the truth, will often haunt the mind and mingle more or less with all its thoughts. Religion, it is clearly seen, if it be anything, is of the highest imaginable interest; and to miss the truth in such an affair, may, it cannot but be felt, involve irreparable loss, disaster that nothing can retrieve. Here is a most effectual cause of disquiet to the soul.

2. It is also evident, still further, that a state of chronic scepticism tends greatly to enfeeble both the character and the mind. A strong mind presses on to a decision. It is content only when getting at results, A sceptical habit--observe I do not say a season of temporary questioning, but a chronic habit of doubting--most generally indicates a want of mental energy to lay hold of evidence and to appreciate its force; a lack of the strength of mind required in order to rise above the prejudices that tend to warp the judgment. It betrays an intellectual feebleness already existing and likely to perpetuate itself. For when the mind has been allowed, and rather encouraged, to wander among the mists of doubt; to look rather after difficulties, than after proofs; it seems to become incapable of logical deduction and unsusceptible to the effect of evidence. It will also be true that in proportion to this loss of force and intellect, there will be likewise a loss of general force of character. He who is unable to decide with promptness, will not be able to execute with vigour. The habitual vacillation of the mind will be sure to exhibit itself in a feeble, time-serving, irresolute course of action. There is yet another evil result of the habit of mind in question.

3. It is very liable to impair the love of truth, and to lower the estimate set on it by the judgment. Truth has been well defined to be “ the reality of things.” To know truth is to know things as they are. On having a right understanding especially of those things that directly relate to us, our highest welfare essentially depends. Nothing therefore, in fact, is so

precious to us as truth. God has, accordingly, given the mind an instinctive love of truth, a natural desire to know things as they are. It is an important end of education to strengthen this desire, and give it a right direction: and observation and experience show that, in respect to many subjects at least, it is, on the other hand, capable of being weakened, and almost or quite destroyed. It is found, for example, especially easy to repress the instinctive desire to know, when there is occasion to apprehend that the knowledge of the truth might be for any reason painful; and this is the case invariably in respect to sinful man when he inquires about religion. While on this, as on other subjects, he feels the natural desire for knowledge, there are conscious reasons growing out of his own character which prompt him to resist this desire, and rather to shrink from full and certain knowledge, than to seek it. He is inclined to indulge himself in something. The question, Is it right? suggests itself. If he presses the inquiry, he may find himself obliged to deny his inclination; and he will be very likely for this reason not to press it. The appetite for truth may yield to the stronger appetite for self-indulgence which now has possession of the mind. In every such case, of course, the love of truth must necessarily be weakened. There will be less appreciation of its value than before; and if the oftener the love of truth is repressed for such a reason, the feebler it becomes, it must finally be destroyed. But this is what is happening all the while in the unsettled, wavering, and doubtful mind.

4. It remains only to say finally, that a state of sceptical uncertainty is attended with great danger as regards its last result. To doubt about anything is, of course, to admit the possibility that it is true. To doubt about the claims and obligations of religion is to allow that we are not sure that these are not founded in reality. But while those who are floating on the sea of doubt, confess, by their very uncertainty, that the teachings of religion may quite possibly be true, they are sure to act, in the main, as though certain they were false. It needs no words to show that if you live as though the truths of religion were mere dreams, and it shall finally turn out that they are great realities, you are undone inevitably, and that for ever. This, then, is the amazing peril of resting in a dubious, unestablished frame. Even those who do this cannot but perceive that they run the unspeakably awful hazard of a wretched, lost eternity. Religion and godliness, according to their view of things, hang trembling in equal

balance. How much to be deprecated and dreaded is a position that involves continually the danger of a fall from which there is no recovery I Here, then, are weighty reasons for regarding it as a very serious evil to be in habitual doubt in regard to the truths and duties of religion--reasons which make it appear in the highest degree desirable that the heart should be established. Of course it follows that nothing should be done by any thoughtful person to favour such a state, but that, on the contrary, diligent and resolute effort should be made to avoid or escape it. Do any of you find the impressions of your childhood giving way, in some degree, so that you feel disposed to question them and to demand on what foundation they are based? You see with what seriousness you should regard the crisis. Never, in all your life, has there been a time when you so greatly needed the counsel of your kindest, most faithful, and judicious friends. Yes! Believe it, my intelligent young friend--the poor wayfaring man, who wanders homeless and friendless over the wide world, finding never a voice of greeting nor a resting-place in which he may take up his abode, is far less an object of compassion than he whose soul is driven about perpetually in the chaos of confused and dubious thought, where all is dim and shadowy, and can find nothing that is stable; who as to the highest and most vital questions of his being, has established nothing, and positively believes nothing! Rather than suffer yourselves to slide into such a state, it were wisdom to suspend all other business, to shut yourselves up in the chamber of meditation and research, and to bend the undivided energies of your minds on this one work of reaching conclusions which will satisfy; and this with humble, earnest prayer to the Father of lights for that Divine illumination without which spiritual things are never clearly seen by any of mankind. You can have satisfaction on all really vital questions if you will. You may plant yourselves, if you will do it, where, though floods come, and the tempests beat, and the refuges of error are all swept away, you can stand calmly and in serenity of soul, and feel your foundations firm. Believe it--nay rather, make the experiment for yourselves, and know it with a happiness that cannot be described. There is light--and you were made to see it. There is reality--and you were made to find it. There is religious truth--and you, you may grasp the inestimable treasure, and make it your own blessed and permanent possession. (R. Palmer, D. D.)

The true doctrinal foundation

I. THERE IS A REVELATION OF TRUTH GIVEN TO THE CHURCH IN THE WORD OF GOD, WHICH IS ITS ONLY DOCTRINAL FOUNDATION AND RULE OF FAITH.

II. THIS DOCTRINE IS COGNATE, AND EVERY WAY SUITED TO THE PROMOTION OF THE GRACE OF GOD IN BELIEVERS, AND THE ATTAINMENT OF THEIR OWN SALVATION.

III. DOCTRINES UNSUITED TO THIS FIRST REVELATION BY CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES, AS RECORDED IN THE SCRIPTURE, ALIEN AND FOREIGN FROM THEM, DID SOON SPRING UP UNTO THE TROUBLE OF THE CHURCH they had done so in those days, and continued to do so in all ensuing ages.

IV. USUALLY SUCH DOCTRINES ARE AS EMPTY OF TRUTH AND SUBSTANCE, USELESS AND FOREIGN TO THE NATURE AND GENIUS OF EVANGELICAL GRACE AND TRUTH, ARE IMPOSED BY THEIR AUTHORS AND ABETTORS, WITH A GREAT NOISE AND VEHEMENCE ON THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED IN THE TRUTH.

V. WHERE SUCH DOCTRINES ARE ENTERTAINED, THEY MAKE MEN DOUBLE-MINDED, UNSTABLE, TURNING THEM FROM THE TRUTH, AND DRAWING THEM AT LENGTH INTO PERDITION.

VI. THE RUIN OF THE CHURCH IN AFTER AGES AROSE FROM THE NEGLECT OF THIS APOSTOLICAL CAUTION, IN GIVING HEED UNTO VARIOUS AND STRANGE DOCTRINES, which at length overthrew and excluded the fundamental doctrines of the gospel.

VII. HEREIN LIES THE SAFETY OF ALL BELIEVERS, AND OF ALL CHURCHES NAMELY, TO KEEP THEMSELVES PRECISELY UNTO THE FIRST COMPLETE REVELATION OF DIVINE TRUTH IN THE WORD OF GOD. Let men pretend what they will, and bluster as they please, in an adherence to this principle we are safe; and if we depart from it, we shall be hurried and carried about through innumerable uncertainties unto rain.

VIII. That those who decline in anything from grace, as the only means to establish their hearts in peace with God, SHALL LABOUR AND EXERCISE THEMSELVES IN OTHER THINGS AND WAYS TO THE SAME END, WHEREBY THEY SHALL RECEIVE NO ADVANTAGE. (John Owen, D. D.)Evils of inconstancy:

An inconstant and wavering mind, as it makes a man unfit for society (for that there can be no assurance of his words or purposes, neither can we build on

them without deceit), so, besides that, it makes a man ridiculous, it hinders him from ever attaining any perfection in himself (for a rolling stone gathers no moss, and the mind, while it would be everything, proves nothing. Oft changes cannot be without loss); yea, it keeps him from enjoying that which he hath attained. For it keeps him ever in work, building, pulling down, selling, changing, buying, commanding, forbidding. So, whilst he can be no other man’s friend, he is the least his own. It is the safest course for a man’s profit, credit, and ease, to deliberate long, to resolve surely; hardly to alter, not to enter upon that whose end he foresees not answerable; and when he is once entered, not to surcease till he have attained the end he foresaw. (Bp. Hall.)Fixed religious convictions helpful to growth

“Stand fast in the faith.” There are some men who, because they want to grow, are continually being transplanted; and they think that because they keep moving from place to place, they are gaining; but they gain nothing at all. Trees that grow fastest stand stillest. Running after every new thing that presents itself does not increase the growth of Christian graces, or anything else that is good. If a man would grow spiritually, he must have a standpoint, a fixed root-place, for his religious convictions. (H. W. Beecher.) True doctrine

The question is not whether a doctrine is beautiful, but whether it is true. When we want to go to a place, we don’t ask whether the road leads through a pretty country, but whether it is the right road, the road pointed out by authority, the turnpike-road. (J. C. Hare.)

The heart be established with graceConfirmation in the doctrines of the gospel an effect of Divine grace

I. WHO ARE THE SUBJECTS OF GRACE? All men are naturally destitute of grace, and under the entire dominion of a depraved heart. In this state they remain until they are awakened, convinced, and converted, by the special influences of the Divine Spirit. They now become conformed to the moral image of God, reconciled to His character, to His laws, and to the terms of salvation proposed in the gospel.

II. WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL DOCTRINES OF THE GOSPEL? III. Having specified the essential doctrines of the gospel, it remains to show

THAT REAL CHRISTIANS, WHO ARE THE SUBJECTS OF GRACE, ARE ACTUALLY ESTABLISHED IN THEM. The apostle represents them so established, as not to be carried about by divers and strange doctrines; and this

we find verified by the conduct of real saints under both the Old and New Testament. And it is well-known that since their day, multitudes have sacrificed their lives in testimony of the truth and importance of the essential doctrines of the gospel. And this leads me to say that they not only may be, but must be so established; for several reasons:

1. Because they know that the essential doctrines of the gospel are true. 2. Because they love them. 3. Because they feel the infinite importance of them.

Conclusion: 1. If the subjects of grace are established in the essential doctrines of the

gospel, then it is easy to distinguish religious orthodoxy from religious heterodoxy.

2. If the subjects of grace are established in the essential doctrines of the gospel, then real Christians see the propriety and importance of forming and subscribing creeds, or confessions of faith.

3. If the subjects of grace are established in the doctrines of the gospel; then they are constrained to consider men’s religious sentiments as a test of their religious character.

4. If ministers of the gospel are established in the great and fundamental doctrines of it; they will not fail to preach those doctrines to the people. (N. Emmons, D. D.)

An established heartI. How GOOD IT IS. What else is it that communicates to the Saviour such

nobility but this immovable firmness of a spirit resting in God, from which words and deeds proceed, pure, calm, and self-consistent, like rays which the sun emits? The establishment of heart of which we speak is the union of Divine freedom and Divine power. We call him free who is not dependent on anything outside himself. Are you free in this sense? Where there is this freedom, there is also Divine power. Power is the capability of executing what we have set our minds on doing. Let me determine, moved by nothing without me, and all my action is subordinate to a single aim, and this aim stands unmoved before my eyes. But that is just what gives emphasis to all action. For such power we long, we should like to reign over nature, over our body, over everything outside us. Now it is the unity of such Divine power and freedom that makes establishment of heart so precious. Do you long after it? I know you do: you who see before you

a life in which are seducers and tempters on the right hand and on the left, bent on bringing about your fall, oh, I know you long for it.

II. How SUCH FIRMNESS IS BROUGHT ABOUT--“with grace,” says the apostle. He adds:--“Not with meats,” intending to say, not through dependence on any outward work. When he says, “with grace,” it is as if he said, “through faith in the grace which is offered in Christ.” “Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand”; if there is not this, then establishment of heart is impossible. (J. Tholuck.)The established heart

It is a good thing to have an established heart. With too many of us the inner life is variable and fickle. Sometimes we have days of deep religious earnestness, when it seems impossible for us to spend too long a time in prayer and fellowship with God. The air is so clear that we can see across the waters of the dividing sea, to the very outlines of the heavenly coasts. But a very little will mar our peace, and bring a veil of mist over our souls, to enwrap us perhaps for long weeks. Oh, for an established heart! Now there is one thing which will not bring about this blessed state of establishment. And this is indicated by the expression, “meats”; which stands for the ritualism of the Jewish law. Another obstruction to an established heart arises from the curiosity which is ever running after divers and strange doctrines. A condition which is the very antipodes to the established heart. There is only one foundation which never rocks, one condition which never alters. “It is good that the heart be established with grace.” Primarily, of course, the established heart is the gift of God. (2   Corinthians 1:21 ; 1   Peter 5:10; Deuteronomy 28:9). But there are certain conditions also indicated in this context with which we do well to comply.

I. WE MUST FEED ON CHRIST. Eating consists of three processes: apprehension, mastication, and assimilation; and each of these has its spiritual counterpart in that feeding upon Christ which is the very life of our life. We, too, must apprehend Him, by the careful reading of the Word of God. We, too, must fulfil the second part of the process of eating by meditating long and thoughtfully on all that is revealed to us in the word of the person and work of the Lord Jesus. We, too, must assimilate Christ, until He becomes part of our very being, and we begin to live, yet not we, because Christ lives in us, and has become our very life.

II. IF WE WOULD FEED ON CHRIST, WE MUST GO WITHOUT THE CAMP. There are plenty who argue that the wisest policy is to stop within the camp, seeking to elevate its morals. They do not realise that, if we adopt their advice, we must remain there alone, for our Lord has already gone. ]t is surely unbefitting that we should find a home where He is expelled. What is there in us which makes us so welcome, when our Master was cast out to the fate of the lowest criminals? Besides, it will not be long before we discover that, instead of our influencing the camp for good, the atmosphere of the camp will infect us with its evil. Instead of our levelling it up, it will level us down. The only principle of moving the world is to imitate Archimedes in getting a point without it. All the men who have left a mark in the elevation of their times have been compelled to join the pilgrim host which is constantly passing through the city gates, and taking up its stand by the Cross on which Jesus died. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)An established heart:

Turned into modern English the writer’s meaning is that the merely intellectual religion, which is always occupied with propositions instead of with Jesus Christ, “Who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” is worthless, and the merely ceremonial religion, which is always occupied with casuistries about questions of meats, or external observance of any sort, is as valueless. There is no fixity; there is no rest of soul, no steadfastness of character to be found in either of these two directions. The only thing that ballasts and fills and calms the heart is what the writer here calls “grace,” that is to say, the living personal experience of the love of God bestowed upon me and dwelling in my heart. So, then, the main theme of these words is the possible stability of a fluctuating human life, the means of securing it, and the glory and beauty of the character which has secured it.

I. First, then, mark WHAT THIS WRITER CONCEIVES TO BE THE ONE SOURCE OF HUMAN STABILITY. What the New Testament means by this familiar and frequently reiterated word “grace,” which, I suspect, is oftener pronounced than it is understood by a great many people. To begin with, then, the root meaning of that word, which runs all through the New Testament, is simply favour, benignity, kindness, or, to put all into a better and simpler form, the active love of God. Now, if we look at the various uses of the expression we find, for instance, that it is contrasted with a number of other things. Sometimes it is set in opposition to sin--sin reigns to righteousness, grace reigns to life. Sometimes it is contrasted with “debt,” and put sometimes in opposition to

“works,” as, for instance, by Paul when he says, “If it be of works then is it no more grace.” Sometimes it is opposed to law, as in the same apostle’s words, “Ye are not under law, but under grace.” Now, if we keep these various uses and contrasts in view we just come to this thought, that that active love of God is conditioned, not by any merit on our part--bubbles up from the depths of His own infinite heart, not because of what we are, but because of what He is, transcends all the rigid retributions of law, is not turned away by any sin, but continues to flood the world, simply because it wells up from the infinite and changeless fountain of love in the heart of God. And then, from this central, deepest meaning of active love manifesting itself irrespective of what we deserve, there comes a second great aspect of the word. The name of the cause is extended to all the lustrous variety of its effects. So the complex whole of the blessings and gifts which Jesus Christ brings to us, and which are sometimes designated in view of what they do for us, as salvation or eternal life, are also designated in view of that in God from which they come, as being collectively His “grace.” And then there is a final application of the expression which is deduced from that second one--viz., the specific excellences of character which result from the communication to men of the blessings that flow to him from the love of God. So these three: first, the fountain, the love undisturbed and unalterable; second, the stream, the manifold gifts and blessings that flow to us through Christ; and, third, the little cupfuls that each of us have, the various excellences of character which are developed under the fertilizing influences of the sunshine of that love--these three are all included in this great Christian word. There are other phases of its employment in the New Testament which I do not need to trouble you with now. But thus far we just come to this, that the one ground on which all steadfastness of nature and character can be reared is that we shall be in touch with God, shall be conscious of His love, and shall be receiving into our hearts the strength that He bestows. Man is a dependent creature; his make and his relationships to things round him render it impossible that the strength by which he is strong, and the calmness by which he is established, can be self-originated.

II. And so I come, in the second place, to LOOK AT SOME OF THE VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH THIS ESTABLISHING GRACE CALMS AND STILLS THE LIFE. We men are like some of the islands in the Eastern Tropics, fertile and luxuriant, but subject to be swept by typhoons, to be shaken by earthquakes, to be devastated by volcanoes. Around us there gather external foes assailing our steadfastness, and within us there lie even more formidable enemies to an

established and settled peace. How are such creatures ever to be established? My text tells us by drawing into themselves the love, the giving love of God. I would note, as one of the aspects of the tranquillity and establishment that comes from this conscious possession of the giving love of God, how it delivers men from all the dangers of being “ carried away by divers strange doctrines.” I do not give much for any orthodoxy which is not vitalised by personal experiences of the indwelling love of God. I do not care much what a man believes, or what he denies, or how he may occupy himself intellectually with the philosophical and doctrinal aspect of Christian revelation. The question is, how much of it has filtered from his brain into his heart, and has become part of himself, and verified to himself by his own experience? So much as you have lived out, so much you are sure of because you have not only thought it but felt it, and cannot for a moment doubt, because your hearts have risen up and witnessed to its truth. About these parts of your belief there will be no fluctuation. Still further, this conscious possession of the grace of God will keep a man very quiet amidst all the occasions for agitation which changing circumstances bring. Such there are in every life. Nothing continues in one stay. Is it possible that amidst this continuous fluctuation, in which nothing is changeless but the fact of change, we can stand fixed and firm? Yes! There is shelter only in one spot, and that is when we have God between us and the angry blast. An empty heart is an easily agitated heart. A full heart, like a full sack, stands upright, and it is not so easy for the wind to whirl it about as if it were empty. They who are rooted in God will have a firm bole, which will be immovable, howsoever branches may sway and creak, and leaves may flutter and dance, or even fall, before the power of the storm. Further, another field of the stability communicated by that possessed love of God is in regard of the internal occasions for agitation. Passion, lust, hot desires, bitter regrets, eager clutching after uncertain and insufficient and perishable good, all these will be damped down if the love of God lives in our hearts.

III. Lastly, my text suggests HOW BEAUTIFUL A THING IS THE CHARACTER OF THE MAN THAT IS ESTABLISHED IN GRACE, The word translated “good” in my text would be better rendered “fair,” or “lovely,” or” beautiful.” Is there anything fairer than the strong, steadfast, calm, equable character, unshaken by the storms of passion, unaffected by the blasts of calamity, undevastated by the lava from the hellish, subterranean fires that are in every soul; and yet not stolidly insensible, nor obstinately conservative, but open to the inspiration of each

successive moment, and gathering the blessed fruit of all mutability in a more profound and unchanging possession of the unchanging good? So do you see to it that you rectify your notions of what makes the beauty of character. Then, my brother, if we keep ourselves near Jesus Christ, and let His grace flow into our hearts, then we, too, shall be able to say, “Because I set Him at my right hand I shall not be moved.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)Established in grace:

The vendors of flowers in the streets of London are wont to commend them to customers by crying, “All a blowing and a growing.” It would be no small praise to Christians if we could say as much for them, but, alas! of too manyprofessors the cry would truthfully be, “All a stunting and a withering.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Verse 10Hebrews 13:10

We have an altarOur altar:

I.OUR CHRISTIAN ALTAR. The very living heart of the gospel is an altar and a sacrifice. That idea saturates the whole New Testament, from the page where John the Forerunner’s proclamation is, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” to the last triumphant visions in which the Apocalyptic seer “beheld a Lamb as it had been slain,” the eternal Co-Regnant of the universe, and the Mediator through whom the whole surrounding Church for ever worships the Father. Jesus Christ is all which temple, priest, altar, sacrifice proclaimed should one day be. And just as the relation between Christ’s work and the Judaic system of external ritual sacri-rices is that of shadow and substance, prophecy and fulfilment, so, in analogous manner, the relation between the altar and sacrifice of the New Testament and all the systems of heathenism, with their smoking altars, is that these declare a want, and this affords its supply; that these are the confession of humanity that it is conscious of sin, separation, alienation, and the need of a sacrifice, and that Christ is what heathenism in all lands has wailed that it needs, and has desperately hoped that it might find. Christ in His representative relation, in His true affinity to every man upon earth, has in His life and death taken upon Himself the consequences of human transgression, not merely by sympathy, nor only by reason of the uniqueness of His representative relation, but by willing submission to that awful

separation from the Father, of which the cry out of the thick darkness of the Cross, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” is the unfathomable witness. Thus, bearing our sin, He bears it away, and “ we have an altar.”

II. OUR FEAST ON THE SACRIFICE. The Christ who died for my sins is not only my means of reconciliation with God, but His sacrifice and death are the sustenance of my spiritual life. The life of the Christian is the indwelling Christ. But how is that feeding on the sacrifice accomplished? “He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.” He that believeth, eateth. He that with humble faith makes Christ his very own, and appropriates as the nourishment and basis of his own better life the facts of that life and death of sacrifice, he truly lives thereby. To eat is to believe; to believe is to live. I need not remind you how, though there be no reference in the words of my text, as I have tried to show, to the external rite of the communion of the Lord’s body and blood, and though “ altar:’ here has no reference whatever to that table, yet there is a connection between the two representations, inasmuch as the one declares in words what the other sets forth in symbol, and the meaning of the feast on the sacrifice is expressed by this great word. “This is My body, broken for you.” “This is the new covenant in My blood.” “Drink ye all of it.”

III. OUR CHRISTIAN OFFERINGS ON THE ALTAR. What are these offerings? Christ’s death stands alone, incapable of repetition, needing no repetition, the eternal, sole, “sufficient obligation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” But there be other kinds of sacrifice. There are sacrifices of thanksgiving as well as for propitiation. And we, on the footing of that great sacrifice to which we can add nothing, and on which alone we must rest, may bring the offerings of our thankful hearts. These offerings are of a twofold sort, says the writer. There are words of praise, there are works of beneficence. The service of man is sacrifice to God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)The Jewish and the Christian altar

I. ATTEND TO A FEW PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE JEWISH ALTAR. 1. It had its origin in Divine appointment. 2. The altar being built, it was afterwards dedicated, and in a solemn manner

set apart for God. 3. When the altar was consecrated, it was ever afterwards reputed holy.

II. TRACE THE RESEMBLANCE, IN SOME INSTANCES, BETWEEN THE JEWISH AND THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR.

1. The altar was principally designed for sacrifice, and was, therefore, called the altar of burnt-offering (Exodus 40:10). Now Christ is both the Sacrifice, the Altar, and the Priest.

2. The altar was designed for worship, and its most solemn acts were there performed. “I will wash my hands in innocency,” &c. “I will go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy” (Psalms 26:6; Psalms 43:4). And what the altar was to the Jews, that is Jesus to us; all our services are to be performed in His name, all our prayers and praises offered up through His mediation.

3. The altar was a place of refuge. Christ is in the truest sense the refuge of all who flee from the wrath to come, and who lay hold on the hope that is set before them in the gospel. (B. Beddome M.A.)

The altar of the Christian dispensationI. THE LORD CHRIST, IN THE ONE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF, IS THE ONLY

ALTAR OF THE CHURCH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. II. THIS ALTAR IS EVERY WAY SUFFICIENT IN ITSELF FOR THE ENDS OF

AN ALTAR NAMELY, THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE, as Hebrews 13:12.

III. THE ERECTION OF ANY OTHER ALTAR IN THE CHURCH, OR THE INTRODUCTION OF ANY OTHER SACRIFICE REQUIRING A MATERIAL ALTAR, IS DEROGATORY TO THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST, AND EXCLUSIVE OF HIM FROM BEING OUR ALTAR.

IV. Whereas the design of the apostle in the whole of his discourse is to declare the glory of the gospel and its worship above that of the law, of our priest above theirs, of our sacrifice above theirs, of our altar above theirs, IT IS FOND TO THINK THAT BY “OUR ALTAR,” HE INTENDS SUCH A MATERIAL FABRIC AS IS EVERY WAY INFERIOR UNTO THAT OF OLD.

V. When God appointed a material altar for His service, HE HIMSELF ENJOINED THE MAKING OF IT, PRESCRIBED ITS FORM AND USE, WITH ALL ITS UTENSILS, SERVICES, AND CEREMONIES, ALLOWING OF NOTHING IN IT OR ABOUT IT BUT WHAT WAS BY HIMSELF APPOINTED. It is not, therefore, probable that under the New Testament there should be a material altar of equal necessity with that under the Old, accompanied in its administrations with various utensils, ceremonies, and services; while neither this altar itself, nor any of its services, were of Divine appointment.

VI. SINNERS, UNDER A SENSE OF GUILT, HAVE IN THE GOSPEL AN ALTAR OF

ATONEMENT, WHEREUNTO THEY MAY HAVE CONTINUAL ACCESS FOR THE

EXPIATION OF THEIR SINS. He is the propitiation.VII. ALL PRIVILEGES, OF WHAT NATURE SOEVER, WITHOUT APARTICIPATION OF CHRIST AS THE ALTAR AND SACRIFICE OF THE

CHURCH,ARE OF NO ADVANTAGE UNTO THEM THAT ENJOY THEM. (John Owen,

D. D.)An altar in the Christian economy

1. The very name, institution, and existence of an altar implies that man is a sinner-that there is a quarrel between us and God. If no sin, there is needed no sacrifice; if an altar, there must be sin to necessitate the institution of that altar.

2. It teaches also another grand lesson, namely, that the wages of sin is death.

3. An altar suggests to us a disruption between God and man. It is one of the instinctive suggestions of the heart of man that there is a quarrel between him and God; and until he can see it in the light of revelation, he knows not the origin of that quarrel, he knows not how that quarrel may be made up. The existence of an altar in the Christian economy teaches that there is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared.

4. An altar suggests to us the important, that there being one altar, it is the only way of acceptance. If this be infinite in its sufficiency why seek anything else?

5. Another idea suggested by the name “altar “ is protection. We read occasionally in the Bible of “fleeing to the horns of the altar,” “laying hold upon the horns of the altar”; thus, too, the Christian has in his altar perfect protection. Protection from what? Not from illness, from poverty, from losses, from crosses? These are sanctifying and may not therefore be prevented. But you will have protection from all that is penal; for the inscription most luminous upon the very face of that altar is “ There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”

6. This altar suggests to us the very important truth that through it and by it we always have acceptance with God; that not only is it the only way of acceptance, but it is the standing evidence of access to God.

7. This altar and the idea of an altar teaches us this great lesson, that “without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” A great crime cleaves to humanity; a stain deep as hell has fallen upon the human heart. All the tears of penitence cannot wipe it out, all the blood of martyrs cannot cancel it, no length of time will waste it, no ingenuity of man can mitigate it. There is only one element that can wash it away. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.”

8. We learn another lesson from the name “altar”: it is the altar that sanctifies the gift. The way to have all the sorrows of your life sanctified, to have your great things made greater, and your little things made precious, and the way to receive them again a thousandfold, is to bring and offer them all upon Christ, the glorious altar that sanctifies the gift. What a magnificent idea does this give us of a Christian l The least act that a Christian does is thus a sacerdotal act. All Christians are priests.

9. This use of the word “altar “ implies that there is a priest who offers the sacrifice; who is this priest? We have but one altar, we have therefore but one priest, and we do not need any other. Wherever the winds blow, wherever the waves of the ocean roll, wherever man’s heart beats, and man’s lungs breathe, and man’s soul longs for a sense of the presence of

God, the great High Priest is accessible, able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.

10. But this name, “altar,” having suggested to us so many truths, where, you ask, is the altar situated on which the great propitiation has been made, by which that everlasting High Priest continually stands and ministers for ever? Our altar is in the heaven, on the earth: wheresoever two or three meet in the name of Christ, there the altar stands, and there the altar is approached; for “ I am present in the midst of them.” (J. Cumming, D. D.)

The Christian altarI. First, we have an altar--THAT IS TO SAY, CHRISTIANITY RESTS FOR ITS

BASIS ON THE INSTITUTION OF SACRIFICE. Though men have been divided from each other by oceans and continents, united neither by commerce nor by any mode of communication, though they have differed in their views of polity and government and religion, they seem to have been as one in this matter of

sacrifice. They have all equally thought that the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth must die to propitiate God. And we would have you farther observe, as a proof of the Divine origin of this custom, that it was not an idea which would naturally originate with man. If it had been at all likely, according to the teaching of unassisted reason, that God would have been pleased with this mode of worship, then we might imagine that man had himself devised this mode of approaching his Creator. But let Reason sit in judgment on this custom of animal sacrifices, and what will be her verdict? To kill the unoffending--can that be pleasing to God? When I am conscious of guilt, and anxious for pardon, am I likely to appease God’s wrath by putting to death an innocent victim? We must surely admit that the practice of sacrificing animals, unless Divinely commanded, was an act of wanton cruelty, which, so far from disposing God to mercy, must have stirred Him to greater indignation; and that a custom so manifestly not suggested by reason, should yet have spread itself over the whole earth, seems to us the strongest possible proof of the divinity of its origin. Throughout the whole of the Jewish system there was a continual offering of the blood of animals upon the altars where God was worshipped; and however blind the Jews were, however hard their hearts were, however many truths they missed which the Almighty had meant them to learn, they did lay hold of tiffs truth--that there is no acceptable worship without sacrifice. And when the new religion appeared we can well imagine that this was one of the difficulties to a Jewish mind--that the votaries of the new system abandoned the altars of their fathers, and set up new altars of their own. We can conceive a Jewish objector approaching the apostles, and saying, “How is this? From the time when men first began to call upon the name of the Lord, they have always worshipped at altars. Those altars have always reeked with blood. It is thus that our fathers have worshipped ever since the giving of the law, and even before the days of Moses. It is thus that Abraham worshipped on Mount Moriah. It was thus that Noah worshipped under the arch of the covenant bow. It was thus that Abel worshipped when men sought earliest to win back their way to Paradise. If you are worshippers of the true God, the God of our fathers, where are your altars? what are your sacrifices?” Now, the words of our text seem to reply to such an objector, “We have an altar”; as though the writer said, “We recognise the great principle which has been revealed to men all through the days of the law, which has been known even by heathen men among their grossest superstitions--the truth that without the shedding of blood there is no remission, and we, too, have an altar.” We need

not tell you that the altar here referred to is the Cross, and that the sacrifice offered upon it was the only begotten Son of God. Thus the text affirms that Christianity rests upon basis of sacrifice.

II. The text further affirms THAT THE CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE IS AN OFFERING, FOR SIN. Through the whole of the Jewish system men were taught that as it is the life which man forfeited by sin, so it is the life which must atone for sin. There is a passage in Leviticus which distinctly affirms it: “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” The passage occurs in connection with the command not to eat flesh in which there blood remained. The teaching seems to be this: “You must not eat of blood because that is appointed as the symbol of atonement, and the blood is the symbol of atonement because it represents the life of the animal from which it is taken.” It is not the matter of the blood that atones, but the life it bears and represents. “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it you upon the altar to atone for your lives, for the blood atones through the life.” Hence you will find in the Jewish system that before the victim died the offerer was commanded to lay his hands upon its head. Now, in Scripture the laying on of hands was a symbolical action. It represented the transfer of something from the person imposing his hands to the person or thing upon which hands were laid. What had the offerer to transfer to the victim? Evidently his sin. He came to God as a sinner. His anxious desire was to obtain the forgiveness of his sin. His prayer was that the guilt of his sin might pass from him to the victim that he offered. And the Jews believed that where there was a frank confession and true renouncement of sin there was an actual transfer of sin from the man to the animal. Now, in this text before us the writer identifies the death of Jesus with those particular sacrifices. “We have an altar,” he says, “of which they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” They might eat the free-will offerings and the thank-offerings, but they must not eat that particular sin-offering; for he goes on to say: “The bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary for sin are burned without the camp.” They had been so burned in the days of Moses when the camp was pitched in the wilderness. They were so burned still in the days of the apostles, outside the walls of Jerusalem. “Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.” You see that this text clearly connects the death of Jesus with the Jewish sin-offering, not with thank-offerings or with free-will-offerings, but with the sin-

offering, and with the most sacred and impressive of all the sin-offerings--the offering whose blood was taken to the holiest place by the high priest for sin. We need not enlarge on the correspondence between the death of Jesus and the transactions on that day of atonement. We are taught that by the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, graciously offered as a sacrifice for us, a way has been opened to the holiest as through a veil, that veil no longer excluding and concealing from the presence of God, but rent on purpose to receive every penitent transgressor. We are taught that by the blood of Jesus shed for our sins we are permitted to come, not only with safety, but with boldness into the region of God’s manifested presence. We are taught that the offering, being infinitely precious, is attended by none of the imperfections which mark the Jewish sacrifices, but is adequate to meet all the requirements of a guilty conscience, and to present a sinner, soul and body, with perfect acceptance before the holy God.

III. But this text teaches us, further, THAT THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR WILL HAVE NO RIVAL, NO COMPETITOR YOU observe that the apostle has been telling us in this text that the Christian sacrifice corresponds with the Jewish sin-offering. A little further study will show that he tells us that the Christian sacrifice avails for none who put their trust in the old temple sacrifices. He describes the Jewish system as a camp pitched in the wilderness. It was not a continuing city. He tells us that Jesus went out of the camp, and he exhorts us to follow Him. For himself, he had long since resolved to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified; to worship at no altar but the altar of the Cross; and he here exhorts all his fellow Christians to copy his example, and, at whatever cost and suffering and reproach, to go forth to Him who, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. There is no need for us to emphasize this exhortation not to trust in Jewish sacrifices. Within seven or eight years after this letter was written Jerusalem was destroyed--the temple was abolished. From that day to this no Jewish sacrifices have been offered, so far was that from being a continuing city. But is there nothing that we may learn from this solemn admonition not to trust in the Jewish sacrifices? The underlying principle is this--that Christ will be the Saviour of none who mingle any other confidence with their simple rest upon His merit. You have to come to Jesus and to Jesus only; and if some of you have been looking for salvation long, do you not see here the reason that has kept you back from it? There has not been the renouncement of all other confidences which there must be. We have an altar all-

sufficient to save us to the uttermost; but they have no right to eat of it, they have no saving share in the merit of it, who trust in the sacrifices of the temple. But that is not all that this text teaches us. Not only are we here taught that it is utterly destructive of Christian faith to follow the Jewish ceremonies as a ground of merit; we are further taught that it was dangerous to the simplicity of faith to follow them at all. Now, why were the apostles so anxious to have the Jewish ceremonies abolished? With a ritual that was the most gorgeous the world has ever known, if mankind could learn the truth from ceremonies and symbols, no ceremonies could be imagined more impressive than those which God Himself appointed in the temple at Jerusalem. Why not continue the types to help Christians to understand the Antitype? Why not have an order of priests on earth to remind us of the one Priest in heaven? Why not have sacrifices offered on Christian altars to remind us of the one Sacrifice by which our sins are taken away? Alas, the apostles knew too well how prone men are to rest in shadows and forget the substance, In all ages elaborate ceremonial has been destructive of the simplicity of faith. What, then, does this teach us as to our practical duty? It shows that there is a city out of which we have all to come. We all love it; we all cling to it--the city sometimes of gorgeous ritualistic pomp, the city sometimes of orderly Nonconformist worship; the city of mere outward morality and formal attendance upon the means of grace; the city of personal self-righteousness. Out of it we have to come if we mean to be saved by Christ--away from all that as a ground of trust. Out of it? Whither? To the ignominious place where criminals suffered. To the scene where the bodies of the beasts whose blood had been taken into the sanctuary for atonement were burnt with fire. To Golgotha, the place of a skull. There is our altar.

IV. But, lastly, THE ALTAR DEMANDS SACRIFICE. We are not to escape and think that it is all accomplished because the sacrifice has once been offered. Read on to the fifteenth verse. By Him let us offer the sacrifice of praise, the Jewish free-will offering, the thank-offering. Let us do this continually; not simply, as the Jews did, on great festivals and stated occasions, but always. And let this sacrifice of praise be the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. Mark it, the fruit of our lips--not simply the words of our lips. A great many words pass our lips that are not the fruit. Fruit has a root. The fruit of the lip grows out of the heart; and only when what the lip says is what the heart feels is that the fruit of our lips. There must be the fruit of our lips--the thanks to God that spring out of a truly renewed and grateful nature: “the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.”

The margin says, “confessing His name,” and that is the best thanks we can give to God--not to talk about ourselves, but about Him, to confess what He is and what He has done for us. “The fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” But that is not all. Forget not that there is something beyond even that. The sixteenth verse tells you: “To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Though the Jewish ritual has been abolished, though the nursing mother no longer brings her pair of turtle doves and her two young pigeons for an offering, though the man recovered from sickness no longer drives his bullock or his flock of sheep to the temple door, the heart of a Christian will be as grateful as the heart of a Jew. If we do not bring the victims we may bring the worth of them. (F. Greeves, D. D.)

Verses 11-13Hebrews 13:11-13

Jesus also … suffered without the gateJesus suffering without the gate

I.A CUSTOM that prevailed among the Israelites in the wilderness; “The bodies of those beasts,” etc. The apostle writes as though the camp and this custom still existed. The camp, however, was gone, but the custom remained with this difference only, that the temple was now substituted for the tabernacle and the city for the camp. It was a custom of Divine appointment. The Lord, in framing a law for the Jews, regarded the whole nation as sinners. Besides, therefore, the offerings to be made by individuals for their own sins, various sacrifices were ordained for the sins of the nation, and among these, one of unusual solemnity. It was to be offered once in every year, and on a certain day of the year, called from this circumstance the day of atonement.

II. AN EVENT which took place at Jerusalem, closely resembling it; “Wherefore Jesus also,” &c. Notice three points of resemblance between our Lord and the animals burnt on the day of atonement.

1. They did not die a natural death; their blood was shed before they were carried forth. And our Lord also “ suffered”; His precious blood, too, was poured forth.

2. He suffered in the same place in which these animals were destroyed. They were slain, indeed, in the camp, but they were burned outside of it. So our Lord” suffered without the gate.” “They led Him out to crucify Him,”

out of their city, to the very spot probably where, after the people were settled in Jerusalem, the bodies of those beasts which had so long prefigured Him were consumed.

3. He suffered for the same end. The blood of these animals was shed that it might be taken “into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin,” as a propitiation for sin; their bodies were burned as a testimony of the Divine indignation against sin. When these two ceremonies had been gone through God is said to have been reconciled to His people, the whole camp was considered as purged from its transgressions. And what was the end for which our Lord suffered? It was that His people, His spiritual Israel, might have sin removed from them.

III. AN EXHORTATION grounded on the event mentioned. “Let us go forth,” &c. We must again imagine ourselves in the desert. Around us are spread the tents of Israel. The men dwelling in them are all worshipping the Lord in one way--as their fathers worshipped Him, looking for His mercy through rites and ceremonies and bleeding victims. The Lord Jesus appears amongst them; tells them He is sent of God to abolish these rites and ceremonies, to become Himself once for all a victim for them, and calls upon them in consequence to turn from their shadowy rites and long accustomed sacrifices to Him. Instead of this, they cast Him forth out of their camp and crucify Him. We are to conceive of Him, therefore, as even now hanging in shame and suffering on a Cross beyond the gate, and then comes this apostle saying to us among our tents, “Let us not linger here. Let us go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.”

1. It is clear, then, that He calls on us, first, to forsake the religion of our fellow-men, a religion, it may be, that either is or once was our own. The Jew in the desert could not go forth to a bleeding Jesus without turning his back on the Jewish worship, and giving up all his long-cherished Jewish hopes. He must abandon the sanctuary and ordinances with which all his religious feelings have been long associated, and around which he beholds his countrymen still gathering. A painful sacrifice. And it is the same now. Many of us have a religion that the gospel calls on us to renounce. It is made up of opinions and feelings and hopes which are as much opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ as the religion of any Jew ever was. We may have cherished it long, even from our childhood. The world around us may respect and commend it; it is natural it should do so--it is the world’s own religion; the world taught it us. But no matter who

commends it or how highly we may have valued it, we must let it go; or rather we must turn our backs on it, we must cast it away, before we and the Cross of Christ can ever meet.

2. And with the religion of the world, we must forsake also to a considerable extent the men of the world.

3. Then, connected with this forsaking of the world, there must be an actual coming, the apostle says, to Christ our Lord. Observe, he does not simply bid the Israelites leave the camp, as though his only object was to get them away from their old religion and companions, he directs them all to one spot; he bids them leave the camp for one purpose, that they may go to Him who is suffering for them without the gate. So we are not to go forth only, we are to go forth unto Christ. It will profit us nothing to give us the empty religion of the world, if when we let that go, we get no other. Superstition for scepticism is a poor exchange. And it will profit us as little to forsake the world, if we stand still when we have forsaken it. The going forth, the apostle enjoins, is not going into cells and hermitages, nor is it roaming this desert world in a proud, dreary solitariness. It is a going forth unto Jesus. It is exchanging the religion of the world for the religion of His Cross; it is giving up that which cannot elevate, comfort, or save us, for that which can. And then it is leaving the world for the world’s Master; it is suffering the loss of all things that we may win Christ; it is the forsaking of a world which is not worthy even of us, that we may be--what? outcasts? No; but “fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God”; sharers now of higher riches and pleasures than the earth can give, and heirs of a world that is worthy, if any world can be, of the God who made it. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

Let us go forth therefore unto HimExhortation to decision and earnestness in religion:

I. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE ADMONITION IN THE TEXT. 1. The conduct which he intended to prescribe to the Christian converts to

whom he wrote was evidently this--namely, that they should openly profess their faith in Jesus, who had been cast out as accursed, notwithstanding the reproach to which such a profession would expose them; and should publicly adhere to His worship and service in the sight of their unbelieving and reviling countrymen.

2. What does the apostle here exhort us to do? He doubtless exhorts us to make Christ crucified our only hope; to confess Him before men, and by our open and consistent attachment to His cause, His people and His ordinances, to show that we indeed belong to Him.

II. SOME PARTICULARS WHICH A COMPLIANCE WITH THIS ADMONITION INVOLVES.

1. That we renounce all other grounds of satisfaction for sin, and of acceptance with God, but those which the Cross of Jesus Christ provides.

2. That we separate ourselves from the world. Especially 3. That we are prepared to take up the cross and encounter reproach for

Christ’s sake. III. THE MOTIVES BY WHICH THE ADMONITION IS ENFORCED.

1. Our situation in this world is one of extreme uncertainty. “Here we have no continuing city.”

2. Besides “ we seek one to come.” This is our profession as Christians. We profess that we are seeking “a city which hath foundations”; a “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” But unless we go forth unto Christ, all such profession is vain. (E. Cooper, M. A.)

Let us go forthI. We have, first of all, THE BELIEVER’S PATH. “Let us go forth without the

camp.” The Divine command is not, “Let us stop in the camp and try to reform it--things are not anywhere quite perfect, let us therefore stop and make matters right”; but the Christian’s watch cry is, “Let us go forth.” To this day the Christian’s place is not to tarry in the camp of worldly conformity, hoping, “Perhaps I may aid they movement for reform”: it is not the believer’s duty to conform to the world and to the world’s ways, and say, “Perhaps by so doing I may gain a foothold, and men’s hearts may be the more ready to receive the truth.” No, from the first to the last day of the Church of God, the place of witness is not inside, but outside the camp; and the true position of the Christian is to go forth without the camp, bearing Christ’s reproach. What is meant by this “ going forth without the camp”?

1. I understand it to mean that every Christian is to go forth by an open profession of his faith. You that love the Lord are to say so. You must come out and avow yourselves on His side. You may be Christians and make no profession, but I cannot be sure of that, nor can any other man.

2. This done, the Christian is to be separate from the world as to his company. He must buy, and sell, and trade, like other men in the world, but yet he is not to find his bosom friends in it.

3. The follower of Jesus goes without the camp as to his pleasures. He is not without his joys nor his recreations either; but he does not seek them where the wicked find them. If thou hast no separation from the world, as to thy pleasures, since thy heart is generally in thy pleasures, thy heart therefore is with the wicked, and with them shall thy doom be when God comes to judge mankind.

4. Furthermore, the true follower of Christ is divided from the world as to his maxims; he does not subscribe to the laws which rule most men in their families and their business. Men generally say, “Every one for himself, and

God for us all.” “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others,” is the Christian’s rule.

5. Once more--and here is a very difficult part of the Christian’s course--the Christian is to come out not only from the world’s pleasures, andsins, and irreligion, but there are times when the true followers of Christ must come out from the world’s religion as well as irreligion.

II. But now, secondly, we have in the text, THE CHRISTIAN’S LEADER. It does not say, “Let us go forth without the camp” merely, but, “Let us go forth therefore unto Him.”

1. It means, let us have fellowship with Him. He was despised; He had no credit for charity; He was mocked in the streets; He was hissed at; He was hounded from among society. Expect not to wear the crown where Christ carried the Cross; but, for fellowship’s sake, follow Him.

2. Again, if I am to follow Him, I am to follow His example. What Christ did, that I am to do.

3. I am to go forth unto Him: that is, I am to go forth to His truth. Wherever I see His truth, I am to espouse it: wherever I see error, I am to denounce it without hesitation.

4. And then I am to go forth to Christ’s witness-bearing. The present age does not believe in witness-bearing, but the whole Bible is full of it. The duty of every Christian is to bear witness for the truth.

III. Now, in the third place, we have THE CHRISTIAN’S BURDEN. He is to bear the Lord’s reproach. I knew you may live without it if you will fawn and cringe, and keep back part of the price; but do not this, it is unworthy of your manhood,

much more is it unworthy of your Christianity. For God and for Christ be so holy and so truthful that you compel the world to give its best acknowledgment of your goodness by railing at you--it can do no more, it will do no less. Be content to take this shame, for there is no heaven for you if you will not--no crown without the cross, no jewels without the mire. You must stand in the pillory if you would sit in glory; and if you reject the one you reject the Other.

IV. THE CHRISTIAN’S REASON FOR BEARING HIS REPROACH, AND GOING WITHOUT THE CAMP. It is in the text, “Let us go forth therefore”--there is the reason. Why then?

1. First, because Jesus did. Jesus Christ came into the world pure and holy, and His life and His testimony were a witness against sin. Jesus Christ would not conform. He stands out like a lone mount of light, separate from the chain of dark mountains; and so must the Christian. Christ was separate; and so must you be. Christ was pure, holy, truthful; so must you be. I pray you either renounce your profession, or else seek grace to carry it out.

2. Moreover, the connection of the text tells us that Christ set apart His people by going without the camp. That He might sanctify His people, He suffered without the camp. The Head is not of the world, and shall the members be of it?

3. Again, Christ would have His people separate for their own sanctification. You cannot grow in grace to any high degree while you are conformed to the world. The path of separation may be a path of sorrow, but it is the path of safety. The martyrs tell us in their diaries that they were never so happy as when they were in the dungeon alone with Christ for company; nay, their best days were often their days of burning: they called them their wedding-days, and went to heaven singing and chanting the triumphal paean, as they mounted in their chariots of fire.

4. Thus we shall hope to win the crown if we are enabled by Divine grace faithfully to follow Christ in all respects. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Going forth to Christ1. Let us go forth unto Christ without the camp, that we may testify to Him as

the Messiah, the only Saviour. This is manifestly the first leading idea which our text is designed to convey. On this fundamental doctrine of our holy faith hinges the essential difference between Christianity and Judaism. It constitutes also one vital point of difference between the

gospel and the various systems of heathenism and infidelity. All the sections of the unbelieving world agree in this, that they do not acknowledge Christ as the promised Messiah. “Unto you who believe He is precious.” Attachment to the person of Christ can only spring from a Divine principle. “No man can truly call Him Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” I beg of you, therefore, distinctly to understand, that I do not expect you will be prepared to lift up a consistent testimony to His Messiahship, unless you are the subjects of a saving change. “The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be.”

2. Let us go forth unto Jesus without the camp, that we may specially bear testimony to Him as King of Zion. This is what may be emphatically called our present duty. We might justly regard it as treason against the Lord of Glory, were we to overlook this view of our subject. We dare not hold our peace regarding the sovereign authority of the Redeemer, although some prejudiced souls should be offended.

3. We must go forth unto our Lord without the camp if we would enjoy fellowship and communion with Him. This idea is naturally suggested by the preceding context, “We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” The importance of this consideration should ever be borne in mind. It argues a very diseased state of things on the part of any professing Christian, when the question with him is--How far he may go in the path of error and corruption, and still enjoy communion with the “author and finisher of our faith.” And it certainly is a sign of daring impiety when individuals, be they ministers or hearers, are exercising their ingenuity in devising reasons for palliating soul-destroying errors, and when they have the effrontery to tax us with want of charity when we endeavour to vindicate the doctrine of spiritual fellowship, and call upon the Christian people to abandon the communion of a Church that has practically renounced the King of saints.

4. In obeying this command we must lay our account with contempt, reproach, and persecution. It is the dictate of experience, as well as of Scripture, that “all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” The mere circumstance of coming out from the world lying in wickedness, and of faithfully serving the Captain of our salvation, has never failed to bring upon them the scorn and hatred of the ungodly. The votaries of superstition cannot bear to see the truth as it is in Jesus openly

proclaimed and honoured. Men of despotic principles will not tolerate, if they can help it, a spiritual authority which stands in the way of their usurpations. And false professors of the gospel, whose interests are linked with corruption and tyranny, will be among the foremost to vilify such as for conscience’ sake withdraw from their communion. Where do we find, among men, a brighter example of piety, and holiness, and philanthropy, than that of the apostle of the Gentiles? and who ever experienced greater reproach or more bitter persecution than he? When we look higher we see that our Lord Himself “was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Why should we dream of exemption from trials? The offence of the Cross has not ceased. But we must not be deterred from following Christ by the dread of obloquy, or the loss of all things. (John Thomson.)

The renouncing spirit of ChristianityI. ALL PRIVILEGES AND ADVANTAGES WHATEVER ARE TO BE

FOREGONE, PARTED WITHAL, AND RENOUNCED WHICH ARE INCONSISTENT WITH AN INTEREST IN CHRIST, and a participation of Him; as our apostle shows at Philippians 3:4-10).

II. That if it were the duty of the Hebrews to forsake these ways of worship, which were originally of Divine institution, that they might wholly give up themselves unto Christ in all things pertaining unto God, MUCH MORE IS IT OURS TO FOREGO ALL SUCH PRETENCES UNTO RELIGIOUS WORSHIP AS ARE OF HUMAN INVENTION.

III. Whereas the camp contained not only ecclesiastical but also political privileges, WE OUGHT TO BE READY TO FOREGO ALL CIVIL ACCOMMODATIONS ALSO IN HOUSES, LANDS, POSSESSIONS, CONVERSE WITH MEN OF THE SAME NATION, WHEN WE ARE CALLED THERE UNTO ON THE ACCOUNT OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPEL.

IV. If we will go forth unto Christ as without the camp, or separated from all the concern of this world, WE SHALL ASSUREDLY MEET WITH ALL SORTS OF REPROACHES.

V. THAT BELIEVERS ARE NOT LIKE TO MEET WITH ANY SUCH ENCOURAGING ENTERTAINMENT IN THIS WORLD AS TO MAKE THEM UNREADY OR UNWILLING TO DESERT IT, and to go forth after Christ bearing His reproach. For it is a motive in the apostle’s reasoning to a readiness for that duty, “we have here no continuing city.”

VI. THIS WORLD NEVER DID, NOR EVER WILL, GIVE A STATE OF REST AND SATISFACTION TO BELIEVERS. It will not afford them a city. It is Jerusalem above that is the “vision of peace.” Arise and depart, this is not your rest.

VII. IN THE DESTITUTION OF A PRESENT SATISFACTORY REST, GOD HATH NOT LEFT BELIEVERS WITHOUT A PROSPECT OF THAT WHICH SHALL AFFORD THEM REST AND SATISFACTION TO ETERNITY. We have not, but we seek.

VIII. As God hath prepared a city of rest for us, so IT IS OUR DUTY CONTINUALLY TO ENDEAVOUR THE ATTAINMENT OF IT IN THE WAYS OF HIS APPOINTMENT.

IX. THE MAIN BUSINESS OF BELIEVERS IN THIS WORLD IS DILIGENTLY TO SEEK AFTER THE CITY OF GOD, or the attainment of eternal rest with Him; and this is the character whereby they may be known. (John Owen, D. D.)Coming forth to Christ

I. WE MUST COME FORTH OF THE CAMP OR CITY TO HIM. 1. The camp or city is Judaism, and all erroneous sects, and also the world,

and men of the world: we must separate from all things inconsistent with the truth and Christ.

2. Out of this camp or city we must come forth, and that we do when we renounce all errors in religion and all earthly affections. We have something in our hearts which keeps us from our God till we be truly converted.

3. To come forth to Christ, therefore, is to be rightly informed, and to believe the saving truth of Christ; and upon this right information, to love Him above all, as far more necessary, excellent, and beneficial than anything, than all things else. To come forth to Him is not to change the place but our hearts; it is a motion not of the body, but the soul, and if we once knew the beauty of Christ, and had tasted of His sweetness, we should be ravished with Him, and all the world could not keep us from Him. In Him alone true happiness is to be found.

II. The second part of the duty is TO BEAR HIS REPROACH. Here is reproach, His reproach, the bearing of His reproach. In this the author alludes unto the bearing of the cross, which was the greatest shame any man could be put unto. To endure disgrace, and suffer in our reputation, credit, hot, our, and good name, is a very grievous evil, and few can endure it, and some can better suffer death

than ignominy. The Cross was not only a matter of reproach, but of grievous pain, and was the epitome of all possible evils; and, therefore, by reproach is signified all kinds of afflictions which we may suffer from men, or may be obnoxious unto in this life. Yet this reproach and this cross here meant must be His reproach, His Cross. If we suffer punishment for our own crimes, and through our own folly, then it is not Christ’s cross. This is a reproach and cross laid upon us for His sake, because we profess His truth, obey His laws, oppose sin and His enemies, refuse to comply with the world in any sin, renounce all errors, idolatry, superstition, and wicked customs of the world, and all this out of love to Christ. To bear this cross is not merely to suffer any ways, but to suffer the worst man can do unto us with patience, with constancy, with joy, and to think ourselves happy and much honoured that we are counted worthy to suffer for so great a Saviour, and in so noble a cause. This requires a Divine faith well grounded upon the word and promises of God, and a special assistance of the Divine Spirit; for these will strengthen our hearts, and make us willing to suffer anything before we offend our God and lose our Saviour. (G. Lawson.)

Bearing His reproachChrist’s reproach

It is called Christ’s reproach in sundry respects: as1. The union that is betwixt Him and His Church. So as the reproach of the

body or of any member thereof is the reproach of Christ Himself. 2. The sympathy which is betwixt Christ and every of His members. He is

sensible of that reproach which is cast upon any of them (Acts 9:4). 3. The account which Christ hath of the reproaches of His saints; He doth

account them as reproaches cast upon Himself. 4. His undertaking to revenge such reproaches and wrongs as are done to

His members (Romans 12:19). 5. The cause of the reproach which is here meant, and that is Christ Himself,

a profession of His name, a maintaining of His gospel, and holding close to His righteousness. In this sense an apostle calleth sufferings in such cases Christ’s sufferings (1   Peter 4:14 ; Acts 5:41).

6. That resemblance that is betwixt the reproaches of saints and Christ. This reference of reproach to Christ in this phrase, “His reproach “ is for

limitation, direction, consolation, and incitation. 1. It affordeth a limitation, in that it restraineth it to a different kind of reproach,

which is Christ’s reproach. It is not every kind of reproach that can be

counted a matter of glory, wherein a man may rejoice; but Christ’s reproach. I may in this case say of reproach, as the apostle doth of buffeting: “What glory is it, if when ye be reproached for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?” (1   Peter 2:20 ).

2. It affordeth a direction in showing how we ought to bear reproach, even as Christ did; for we are in this case to look unto Jesus, who despised the Hebrews 12:2).

3. It ministereth much comfort, in that no other thing is done to us than what is done to our Head before us. Herewith doth Christ comfort His disciples (Matthew 10:25; John 15:20).

4. What greater motive can we have to incite us willingly and contentedly to bear reproach than this, that it is Christ’s reproach? If honour, if profit may be motives to incite us to a duty, these motives are not wanting in this case. What can be more honourable than to be as Christ was? and if we be reproached with Him here, we shall enjoy with Him hereafter a crown of glory; what more honourable? what more profitable? (W. Gouge.)

Reproach incurred by Christians:The following are the chief grounds on which the first Christians were called to

bear reproach, and on which we also may be called to bear the same. 1. They suffered reproach, as being followers of a crucified Saviour. 2. A second ground of the reproach suffered by the first Christians was that

they forsook the ways of an evil world. 3. Christians are reproached by many on account of their general seriousness

and spirituality of character. 4. Lastly: those who adopt any peculiar mode of religious observance have

been at times exposed to ridicule on that account. (R. Hall, M. A.)Bearing Christ’s reproach

Sheriff--was the child of a Christian mother. He had lived to be over sixty years of age without openly confessing Christ. Some time ago he “became interested in his spiritual welfare, and after attending some meetings in the city where he lived, he arose and openly acknowledged his intention to be a Christian. The positiveness of his expression, and his prominence in the community, caused a reporter to insert an item in the next morning’s paper that the sheriff had been converted. When he went into the court-house in the performance of his duties, he was saluted by one of a throng of godless men with the remark, “Well, sheriff, we hear you are going to leave us.”

“Leave you?” said he. “What do you mean?” “Why, we heard,” said the man, “that you were going to leave the world, the flesh, and the devil.” The sheriff hesitated only an instant, and said, with great emphasis, “That’s just what I’m going to do.” One of the men then said, “How do you like its being printed in the paper that you have been converted?” He said, “Was that in the paper? I think that is grand. I wish that they’d print placards about it and put them up all over the city, so that people might know about it at once, that I mean henceforth to be a Christian man.” It is needless to say that from that time he was a devoted and faithful follower of Christ. Prizing the Cross:

Tacitus reports that though the amber ring among the Romans was of no value, yet, after the emperor began to wear it, it began to be in great esteem: it was the only fashion amongst them. So our Saviour has borne the Cross, and was borne upon it. Once a disgrace, even, it comes to be a boast to the true believer. We should esteem it more highly than many of us do, and bear it daily in remembrance of Him. (E. P.Thwing.)

Verse 14Hebrews 13:14

Here have we no continuing cityAn ever-changing scene:

These words sum up what was certainly the apostolic mind as to the position of Christians in the world.They were members, as we are, of a vast and complex association which we call human society; but, with all its great attributes, it wants permanence. The world passes away as we work and speak. “Here we have no continuing city.” We have, indeed, a city; we have a wonderful and beneficent citizenship; we could not live without it; we owe it debts beyond repayment, duties of the most sacred kind; but society is with us and about us to-day, and to-morrow we and it are to be so much farther on in our round of successive changes, by which it becomes something quite different from what it is now, something, perhaps, which now we cannot imagine, and we disappear from life and from the visible world. But though “here we have no continuing city,” we do “seek one to come.” Born amid change, knowing nothing by experience but change, the human heart yet obstinately clings to its longing for the unchangeable and eternal. Christian souls not only long for it, but look for it. We seek that which is to come--seek it,

believing that we shall one day reach it. We do not need Scripture to teach us that “we have no continuing city,” that “the fashion of this world passeth away,” that “nothing continueth in one stay.” But only Scripture can teach us to seek with hope for that which is to come. I need not remind you how, throughout the Psalms, we meet the impressive recognition of this aspect of life and of the world. They are full of the presence, of the greatness, of the eventfulness Of change--change going on for good and evil, for joy and sorrow, in Outward circumstances, in the inward life--changes visible, material, political, moral, and vicissitudes in the fortunes of men and nations; and there are recorded the most rapid alternations and successions of feeling in the soul within, in its outlook towards God and things outside it. The idea of the sovereignty of God is the counterpart throughout the Psalms set over against all that is unsatisfying, disastrous, transitory, untrustworthy, not only in man’s condition, but in the best that be can do. The psalmists realised that they had “no continuing city” in a way that is far beyond our experience. They knew a state of society which could rely on nothing settled. It was liable at any moment to be tormented by insolent and lawless wickedness, to be shaken to its foundations by the fever and passion of false religions, to be crushed down into utter ruin by some alien conqueror. They believed that they were the people of God; they believed that they had His promises; and yet what they saw was these promises still unfulfilled, recalled, apparently passing away to nothingness; they, the people of God’s holiness, saw in the midst of them, trampling on all light and purity, the bloodthirsty and deceitful man; they, the elect of the Lord of Hosts, saw the enemy master among the ruins of God’s holy place, and for generation after generation felt themselves the slaves and spoil of the heathen. What wonder, then, that the voice of grief and humiliation sounds with such tragic repetition in the Book of Psalms? “Hath God indeed forgotten to be gracious, and wilt He shut up His loving-kindness in displeasure?” But what is the other side of all this? It is that perhaps with one, and that only an apparent exception, the voice of unalloyed and uncomforted despair is never heard there. At the very moment that the heart is rent with shame and agony comes the remembrance of the Eternal King of Mercy and Righteousness, whose kingdom endured from end to end, while empires rose and fell, and whose ear heard with equal certainty the cry of the poor, and the blasphemer, and the cruel. In spite of the daily evidence of experience, the wicked “flourishing like a green bay-tree,” the power of the oppressor, the mocking tongue of the blasphemer--in spite of all, the foundations stand sure and

unshaken by any accidents of mortal condition. “Thou art set in the throne that judgest right.” “The Lord shall endure for ever; He hath also prepared His seat for judgment.” “The Lord also will be a defence for the oppressed,” &c. And so with the transitoriness of the lives and generations of men. Nowhere is a keener sense shown of it than in the Psalms. “For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain.” “As soon as Thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep, and fade away suddenly like the grass.” “For, when Thou art angry, all our days are gone; we bring our years to an end as a tale that is told.” What is there to comfort and compensate for this dreary prospect? Nothing but unlimited trust in God’s power and goodness and ever-watchful care. “My days have gone like a shadow, and I am withered like grass.” There is the consciousness which must come to all men sooner or later--a consciousness in the Psalmist’s case that these great changes in his lot were not undeserved by a sinner. “And that because of Thy indignation and wrath; for Thou hast taken me up, and cast me down.” The great revelation of forgiveness and immortality was yet to come, but the Psalmist’s faith in the Eternal King of the world never wavered. “The days of man are bat as grass, for lie flourisheth as a flower of the field. For as soon,” etc. “But the merciful goodness,” &c. “When the breath of man goeth forth,” &c. The waste, the throwing away of human souls, of human affection--is there anything more strangely perplexing in the ruin of death? But the answer is at hand: “Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,” &c. Men died and were buried, and their children after them; they knew that they must die and be as though they had never been. They walked like shadows in the midst of shadows. They felt to the full the shortness of life, how soon it was over, how awful its inevitable changes; yet they did not faint. They knew that over them was the ever-continuous rule of Him who made heaven and earth and all things. They doubted not that He “keepeth His promise for ever”; and so, with change and mortality in them and around them, written on the solid earth and on the distant heaven, they broke into the exulting song (Psalms 102:25-28): “Here we have no continuing city”; but we know, with a distinctness which all men have not, of the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But where is that passionate, delighted, triumphant faith of those men of old? What have we got of their joy and gladness at the very thought of God? (Dean Church.)Mutability of man’s present condition

I. HERE WE HAVE NO CONTINUING CITY.

1. We may be said to have here no continuing city, by reason of the changes to which our circumstances are liable.

2. The same truth will appear evident if we consider the dissatisfaction with which every condition in life is attended.

3. The truth of the apostle’s declaration will appear still more manifest when we consider the change to which we ourselves are liable. Every step that we take, while it may bring us nearer to some object of pursuit, at the same time brings us nearer to that misty ocean upon which we must all embark, and bid adieu to all upon its shore.

II. BUT WE SEEK ONE TO COME. 1. This presupposes, on the part of Christians, an idea of the existence of

another city yet to be discovered. 2. The language of the apostle implies not only a conviction of the existence

of heaven, but of its excellence, its decided superiority to the place of man’s present habitation.

3. The language here employed implies a belief that this city may be gained. 4. It implies, more particularly, that Christians have abandoned the world. 5. It implies an actual entrance upon the way to heaven by an engagement in

Christian duty. (James Clason.)The final home of the Christian not on earth, but in heaven

I. MAN HAS NO PERMANENT HOME ON EARTH. 1. The inconstancy of human life. 2. The inevitable event of death. 3. The doom which awaits the earth.

II. THE PERMANENT HOME OF THE CHRISTIAN IS IN HEAVEN. 1. Heaven is a place. 2. Heaven is a permanent place. 3. Heaven is sure to the faithful believer.

III. To ATTAIN HEAVEN IS THE CHRISTIAN’S SUPREME CONCERN. 1. Heaven is secured to the believer conditionally. 2. That condition must be fulfilled on earth. 3. Its fulfilment requires the vigorous application of the whole mind. 4. The hope of heaven inspires Christian courage. (Homilist.)

Men sojourners upon earthI. No sooner are we capable of looking round us, and considering the frame of

our nature, and the condition of our being, than we may observe THAT,

DERIVED FROM DUST, WE NATURALLY HASTEN TO DUST AGAIN that none can claim the privilege of an exemption from the common necessity; that the human, like the vegetable race, have their periods of growth and declension, and are either cut down by the hand of violence, or soon fade and drop of themselves. Strangers and sojourners here, as were all our fathers, we soon pass away, and are gone.

II. I proceed to deduce SOME REFLECTIONS AND INFERENCES FROM THE SHORT DURATION AND TRANSITORY: CONDITION OF HUMAN LIFE.

1. Melancholy indeed would be the reflection that we pass away as a shadow if this life were the whole of our existence, and we had no hope beyond it, But, setting aside other considerations, the short term of our existence here may give us grounds to hope that it will be renewed and prolonged hereafter. For can we think that man was not designed by his Maker to attain that perfection in wisdom, and virtue, and happiness of which his nature is susceptive?

2. Meditation on our short and uncertain state in this world may wean us from an over-fondness for anything in it.

3. The consideration of the shortness of life may assist us in supporting us under its afflictions.

4. If the time of our sojourning in this world be but short, let the great and habitual object of our attention be that state which may soon begin but can never end. If “we have here no continuing city, let us seek one to come.” (G. CarT, B. A.)

Present change and future continuance:Changeableness is one characteristic of all that is earthly. What is history?

Largely the record of a succession of vapours which have appeared for a little time, and then have vanished away. What is philosophy but knowledge of the rise and progress, the extent and duration of shadows? What is poetry but the expression of the deep emotions awakened by earthly vicissitudes? And what is this world as we now all see it but a system of globes having a double revolution? Nothing abides in the same place, or exhibits two days together the same aspect. Changeableness is one feature of all that is earthly; human nature being no exception. Personally, relatively, in body, in spirit, within, without, there is no continuance. Some of the changes to which men are subject are manifestly good in themselves, good in all respects, and in the case of those who love God, and who are the called according to His purpose, all things work together for good.

“Here have we no continuing city.” In what position are we left? Are we never to have continuance? Yes, we are to look upon things abiding, for while “here we have no continuing city, we,” Christians, “seek one to come.”

I. Look at THIS CHANGEABLENESS HERE FELT AND ACKNOWLEDGED. “Here have we no continuing city.” This seems discordant with the closing verse of the former chapter, where it is said--“We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” But you remember, that kingdom is within us; and that kingdom is continued. The apostle is speaking in the text rather of that which is outside of us. Here, too, have we no fixed temporal condition. The rich often become poor; the elevated are brought low; and the men of many friends are made desolate. Here, too, have we no ultimate stage of existence. We begin with babyhood, rise into childhood, and oh, how soon do we get through manhood! And here have we no permanent visible Church. The persons constituting the Churches of Christ die; the members of particular congregations change; they pass from one community to another; and our Church forms and modes alter. Here, too, have we no fixed and unalterable demand upon our resources and powers. Duties and responsibilities, they all vary. Here, too, have we no fixed state of the emotions. To-day we are in joy; to-morrow in sorrow. Here, too, have we not the consummation of redemption. There are some things in our salvation now complete. Our pardon is complete; our justification is complete; but the inner salvation is being wrought out. There is no continuance in the experience of a true Christian. Here, too, have we not the everlasting Jerusalem. So that we may say, looking at all these facts, “Here have we no continuing city.”

II. WE CHRISTIANS SEEK ONE TO COME. We desire that which is unchangeable, and we seek it. “One to come”--a higher and a settled dwelling-place--a final home. It is love that makes a home. To love, and to be loved, though it be in the peasant’s cot, is to be at home; and often you find homes in the rudest dwellings, and none in the most splendid palaces. But where love is likely to be disturbed--where some rude hand can take the threads that love is ever spinning and tying and fastening, and cut them and sever them, the home feeling must of course be partial. And we long for a place and a state where we shall abide eternally in the presence of those who love us. “We seek one to come.” A higher and a settled dwelling-place, a final home, a permanent state of being--not a stereotyped state of being, but still a permanent state of being, as distinguished from a mere probational state. And we long for, we seek a

permanent state of being, and an undisturbed condition. Society, for example, just to take two or three illustrations--society without interruption or separation. Now, as soon as we know one another, we are taken away from each other. Occupation pursued for ever. The man who looks at this world as he should look at it almost trembles to undertake anything great or anything grand. But think of immortality as the day of your work. What broad foundations of enterprises may you lay, when you shall feel that you have the “for-ever” before you in which to execute those enterprises! “One to come”--not only occupations to be pursued for ever, but pleasure to be enjoyed for ever, and honours to be worn for ever, and worship to be continued for ever, and communion to be unbroken for ever, and the Church to be glorious and perfect for ever. Now, we Christians desire this for comfort’s sake, for progress’ sake, and above all for righteousness’ sake. Acknowledge, then, that “here have we no continuing city”; acknowledge it. Acknowledge it by expecting change. Do not busy yourself in trying to fix permanently all the arrangements of your households, and to say, as I sometimes hear some of you say, and hear you say occasionally with trembling, “Now we are settled.” Settled? Settled this side of the grave? Settled--where change is the very law of life? Settled? Oh, never say with the spirit that we are now condemning, “Now we are settled.” When God requires you to make changes, make them, and be ready for them, and then they will not hurt you. “Here have we no continuing city.” Acknowledge this fully and cordially. Then “ seek one to come”--by union with Jesus Christ, and by spiritual preparedness. There is a city to come--a collection of the saved children of Adam in one place--a holy place, a city. It is beautiful for situation, like Jerusalem of old,but built upon everlasting hills which shall never bow, and upon mountains which shall never be moved. It is a holy city, into which shall not enter anything that defileth or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. (S. Martin.)No continuing city here

I. THE AFFECTING VIEW WHICH THE TEXT PRESENTS OF THE PRESENT WORLD.

1. Our earthly possessions do not continue. 2. Our opportunities do not continue. There is a tide in our affairs, both

temporal and spiritual. 3. Our religious peace and joy do not continue. There are disturbing forces in

the kingdom of grace, as well as in that of nature: there are alternations in the affections of the soul, as well as in the seasons and the elements; and

it would be strange if our minds were liable to no fluctuations, since there are different states in the health of our bodies.

II. THE CONDUCT WHICH THE APOSTLE DESCRIBES IN REFERENCE TO ANOTHER WORLD--“but we seek one to come.”

1. Observe the figure under which the place of the future abode of godly persons is represented--it is a city. A city means a place of concourse, in which is intelligent and agreeable society; a place of protection, a place of entertainment, where there is much to delight the eye, the ear, the taste--a place of refinement, where the minds, and manners of the inhabitants are removed from what is coarse--a place of wealth and comfort, affording a confluence of the supplies and enjoyments of life.

2. This peerless place is yet to come. That is, it is yet to appear, to be enjoyed--it is future. Hannibal’s soldiers had no adequate idea of the

Italian plains, before they descried them from the Alpine heights. The Israelites must have had a very imperfect notion of the Land of Promise, before they had crossed the Jordan, and traversed its mountains and valleys, entered its cities, walked amongst its vineyards, and partook of its milk and honey. And our highest attainments of grace upon earth leave us painfully ignorant of the perfect realisations of glory which await us in heaven.

3. Real Christians are now seeking this city which is to come. Seeking it implies earnest desire, assiduous diligence, and progressive advancement. (J. Davies.)

No continuing city:In Chili, where the ground is subject to frequent shocks of earthquake, the

houses are built of lowly height and of unenduring structure; it is of little use to dig deep foundations, and pile up high walls, when the very earth is unstable; it would be foolish to build as for ages when the whole edifice may be in ruins in a week. Herein we read a lesson as to our worldly schemes and possessions; this poor fleeting world deserves not that we should build our hopes and joys upon it as though they could last us long. We must treat it as a treacherous soil, and build but lightly on it, and we shall be wise. (C. H. Spurgeon.)A frail habitation:

Mr. Ruskin speaks in his “Love’s Meinie” of the “Little Crake, a bird which lays her eggs on an inartificially constructed platform of decayed leaves or stalks of marsh plants, slightly elevated above the water. How elevated I cannot find proper account, that is to say, whether it is hung to the stems of growing reeds,

or built on hillocks of soil, but the bird is always liable to have its nest overflown by floods” (H. O.Mackey.)

We seek one to comeThe abiding city of God’s people

I. I shall trace in these words THE OBJECT YEARNED AFTER BY EVERY MAN’S HEART, VIZ., A SETTLED AND SECURE CONDITION. Fully to enter into the beauty and force of this expression, it is necessary to imagine ourselves transported to a country exposed to the frequent devastation of war. Imagine yourselves in a land where the broken framework of the law cannot restrain each castle and town from pouring forth its band of marauding ruffians; or, suppose an enemy’s host landed and spreading fire and ruin far and wide--you will then partly estimate the desirableness of dwelling in “a continuing city.”

II. Therefore, secondly, GOD CONDESCENDS TO GIVE MAN A WARNING RESPECTING IT, drawing at one stroke a picture of this world, by saying that no such permanent security is to be found here--“here we have no continuing city.” Are riches secure? Your city has no bolts and bars to confine them. Friends, the nearest and dearest--what risk of their becoming estranged and chilled by misunderstanding. Earthquake, and hurricane, and plague, and war, are not necessary to brand instability on our comforts of this life. In the form of a slight cold Death lays its imperceptible touch upon the frame, and ere long comes to claim his own. Yet men will seek for these things, as if they were to endure, and will confide in their continuance to the last hour. It is necessary, then, that ye be warned by no less than the voice of God Himself, that “here ye have no continuing city.”

III. But, thirdly, GOD ASSURES US THAT THERE IS SUCH A STATE TO BE ATTAINED UNTO ELSEWHERE--there is “one to come.” The original is more explicit, for the existence of such a state is expressly affirmed. It is spoken of not as a hope, an imagination, like those which man sets before his own eyes, but as a reality. The true force of the expressions, “the one to come,” is, “the city that is to come.” Yes, revelation sets before us a place of security beyond the utmost dream of human hope--“a continuing city,” more complete than it hath entered into the heart of man to conceive, hath God prepared for them that love Him. It is figured forth as a city Hebrews 11:16): “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.” It hath walls and gates: “Thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise.” It is set forth specially under the figure of the “holy city,” the New Jerusalem: “the city had no need of the sun, nor

of the moon.” The majesty of God is security for the peace and safety of that place.

IV. But, fourthly, THE APOSTLE LETS FALL BY THE WAY A SHORT CHARACTERISTIC DESCRIPTION OF EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN, VIZ., THAT HE IS A “SEEKER” OF THAT HEAVENLY CONDITION: “We seek one to come.” Recognise in this description that earnestness is an implied characteristic of the people of God. As an exile seeks his father’s land, or his native city, where the great majority of his kindred dwell, so the Christian soul feels towards heaven. He need not affect stoic indifference to the stations and duties on earth. St. Paul said, “I am of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.” But let earthly things clash with heavenly, and you will see where his heart is, that he is earnestly seeking his native city, into whose privileges he was new born, though at a distance, precisely as Paul was born into the privileges of Rome, though his native place was in Cilicia. The earnestness of a Christian will show itself in all he does; and in proportion as he is earnest, is the development of his Christianity. Another remark to which this characteristic description of a Christian gives rise, is an encouraging one to those Christians who, though earnest, are cast down. A Christian’s character is evidently that of an expectant, not a possessor. Ye are not yet come into the place which the Lord hath said He will give unto you. Be not therefore discouraged at being only an expectant of coming blessings. I would now fain bind this subject yet closer upon your individual hearts, by addressing three classes of persons. First, those that have suffered much from the mutability of earthly things; secondly, those that have been prosperous hitherto; and, thirdly, those that are entering on the trials of life. (G. Hebert, M. A.)Only one Paradise for man

It is said that Mahomet approached Damascus, and when he stood to view the dazzling spectacle of that royal city, amid the beautiful plain, he turned aside and left the prospect, saying, “It is given to man to enjoy Paradise but once. If I possess Damascus I lose heaven.”

Verse 15Hebrews 13:15

Offer the sacrifice of praiseA life-long occupation:

It is instructive to notice where this verse stands.The connection is a golden setting to the gem of the text. Here we have a

description of the believer’s position before God. He has done with all carnal ordinances, and has no interest in the ceremonies of the Mosaic law. What then? Are we to offer no sacrifice? Very far from it. We are called upon to offer to God a continual sacrifice. Having done with the outward, we now give ourselves entirely to the inward and to the spiritual. Moreover, the believer is now, if he is where he ought to be, like his Master, “without the camp.” What then? If we are without the camp, have we nothing to do? On the contrary, let us the more ardently pursue higher objects, and yield up our disentangled spirits to the praise and glory of God. Do we come under contempt, as the Master did? Is it so, that we are “bearing His reproach”? Shall we sit down in despair? Nay, verily; while we lose honour ourselves, we will ascribe honour to our God. We will count it all joy that we are counted worthy to be reproached for Christ’s sake. Moreover, the apostle says that “Here we have no continuing city.” Well, then, we will transfer the continuance from the city to the praise--“Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” If everything here is going, let it go; but we will not cease to sing. If the end of all things is at hand, let them end; but our praises of the living God shall abide world without end.

I. First, then, concerning a believer, let me DESCRIBE HIS SACRIFICE. “By Him therefore.”

1. See, at the very threshold of all offering of sacrifice to God, we begin with Christ. We cannot go a step without Jesus. Without a Mediator we can make no advance to God. He is that altar which sanctifies both gift and giver; by Him, therefore, let our sacrifices both of praise and of almsgiving be presented unto God.

2. Next, observe that this sacrifice is to be presented continually. Not only in this place or that place, but in every place, we are to praise the Lord our God. Not only when we are in a happy frame of mind, but when we are cast down and troubled. The perfumed smoke from the altar of incense is to rise towards heaven both day and night, from the beginning of the year to the year’s end.

3. The apostle goes on to tell us what the sacrifice is--the sacrifice of praise. Praise, that is, heart-worship, or adoration. Adoration is the grandest form of earthly service. We ascribe unto Jehovah, the one living and true God, all honour and glory. Praise is heart-trust and heart-content with God. Trust is adoration applied to practical purposes. Praise is heart-enjoyment;

the indulgence of gratitude and wonder. The Lord has done so much for me that I must praise Him, or feel as if I had a fire shut up within me.

4. The text evidently deals with spoken praise--“Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name”; or, as the Revised Version has it, “the fruit of lips which make confession to His name.” So, then, we are to utter the praises of God, and it is not sufficient to feel adoring emotions. “Well,” saith one, “I cannot force myself to praise,” I do not want you to force yourself to it: this praise is to be natural. It is called the fruit of the lips. Fruit is a natural product: it grows without force, the free outcome of the plant. So let praise grow out of your lips at its own sweet will. Let it be as natural to you, as regenerated men, to praise God as it seems to be natural to profane men to blaspheme the sacred name. This praise is to be sincere and real. The next verse tells us we are to do good and communicate, and joins this with praise to God. Many will give God a cataract of words, but scarce a drop of true gratitude in the form of substance consecrated. This practical praising of the Lord is the life-office of every true believer. See ye to it.

II. We will, secondly, EXAMINE THE SUBSTANCE OF THIS SACRIFICE. “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.”

1. To praise God continually will need a childlike faith in Him. You must believe His word, or you will not praise His name. Doubt snaps the harp-strings. Question mars all melody. Unbelief is the deadly enemy of praise.

2. Faith must lead you into personal communion with the Lord. It is to Him that the praise is offered, and not to our fellow-men.

3. You must have also an overflowing content, a real joy in Him. Be sure that you do not lose your joy Rejoice in the Lord, that you may praise Him.

4. There must also be a holy earnestness about this. Praise is called a sacrifice because it is a very sacred thing. When life is real, life is earnest: and it must be both real and earnest when it is spent to the praise of the great and ever-blessed God.

5. To praise God continually, you need to cultivate perpetual gratitude, and surely it cannot be hard to do that! Remember, every misery averted is a mercy bestowed; every sin forgiven is a favour granted; every duty performed is also a grace received. Let the stream leap up to heaven in bursts of enthusiasm; let it fall to earth again in showers of beneficence;

let it fill the basin of your daily life, and run over into the lives of others, and thence again in a cataract of glittering joy let it still descend.

6. In order to this praise you will need a deep and ardent admiration of the Lord God. Admire the Father--think much of His love; acquaint yourself with His perfections. Admire the Son of God, the altogether lovely One; and as you mark His gentleness, self-denial, love, and grace, suffer your heart to be wholly enamoured of Him. Admire the patience and condescension of the Holy Ghost, that He should visit you, and dwell in you, and bear with you.

III. I want, in the third place, to COMMEND THIS BLESSED EXERCISE. 1. “Offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,” because in so doing you

will answer the end of your being. Every creature is happiest when it is doing what it is made for. Christians are made to glorify God; and we are never in our element till we are praising Him. Do not degrade yourself by a less Divine employ.

2. Praise God again, because it is His due. Should Jehovah be left unpraised? Praise is the quit-rent which He asks of us for the enjoyment of all things; shall we be slow to pay?

3. Praise Him continually, for it will help you in everything else. A man full of praise is ready for all other holy exercises. The praises of God put wings upon pilgrims’ heels, so that they not only run, but fly.

4. This will preserve us from many evils. When the heart is full of the praise of God, it has not time to find fault and grow proudly angry with its fellows. We cannot fear while we can praise. Neither can we be bribed by the world’s favour, nor cowed by its frown. Praise makes men, yea, angels of us: let us abound in it.

5. Let us praise God because it will be a means of usefulness. I believe that a life spent in God’s praise would in itself be a missionary life. A praiseful heart is eloquent for God.

6. Praise God, because this is what God loves. Notice how the next verse puts it: “With such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

7. To close this commendation, remember that this will fit you for heaven. You can begin the music here--begin the hallelujahs of glory by praising God here below.

IV. LET US COMMENCE AT ONCE. What does the text say? It says, “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually.” The apostle does not say, “By and by get

to this work, when you are able to give up business, and have retired to the country, or when you are near to die”; but now, at once, he says, “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise.” Let us stir one another up to praise. Let us spend to-day, and to-morrow, and all the rest of our days in praising God. If we catch one another a little grumbling, or coldly silent, let us, in kindness to each other, give the needful rebuke. It will not do; we must praise the Lord. Just as the leader of an orchestra taps his baton to call all to attention, and then to begin singing, so I bestir you to offer the sacrifice of praise unto the Lord. The apostle has put us rather in a fix: he compels us to offer sacrifice. Did you notice what he said in the tenth verse? He says, “We have an altar.” Can we imagine that this altar is given us of the Lord to be never used? Is no sacrifice to be presented on the best of altars? If we have an altar, do not allow it to be neglected, deserted, unused. It is not for spiders to spin their webs upon; it is not meet that it should be smothered with the dust of neglect. “We have an altar.” What then? “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” Do you not see the force of the argument? Practically obey it. Beside the altar we have a High Priest. Shall He stand there, and have nothing to do? What would you think of our great High Priest waiting at the altar, with nothing to present which His redeemed had brought to God? No, “by Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” Bring hither abundantly, ye people of God, your praises, your prayers, your thank-offerings, and present them to the Ever-blessed! (C. H. Spurgeon.)Public worship a sacrifice:

It is commonly supposed that the immediate object and end of public worship is edification, and that we assemble ourselves together in God’s house of prayer, mainly, if not solely, for our own benefit and improvement. Persons who are better informed will, indeed, admit that the honour of God is also intended in public worship; but it is evident that most people are far from realising this truth. The devout Christian will readily understand that such a view of public worship as this, which has respect rather to our own profit than to God’s honour, is most erroneous; and the words of the text, rightly understood, are well calculated to set forth and correct the falseness of this notion. Now, in considering the apostle’s expression, “sacrifice of praise,” with a view to ascertain the full meaning of the phrase, let us inquire whether there was anything in the ancient sacrifices which does not apply to the solemn services of the Christian Church.

1. And the first prejudice which we may mention against applying the term sacrifice to our own acts of worship is the erroneous persuasion that blood

was always shed in the sacrifices of old. But this is altogether a mistake, and betrays an ignorance of the Scriptures, as well as of the writings of heathen antiquity; for nothing is more certain than that the sacrifices both of Jews and Gentiles consisted, many of them, of the oblation not of slain animals, but of flour, cakes, wine, fruits, and other vegetable substances.

2. Having, then, shown that there were other sacrifices among the Jews than those of slain animals, I will notice a second objection that might be ignorantly urged against the term “sacrifice” being applied to Christian oblation, viz., that the sacrifices of old were always burnt upon the altar, whereas all burnt-offerings have ceased among Christians. But it is not true that all the Jewish sacrifices were burnt; for it is certain that the wave-loaves were not thus offered with fire: and again, it was distinctly enjoined that the scape-goat was to be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement.

3. But perhaps a still more serious objection to our use of the word “ sacrifice” is the fear entertained by many well-meaning persons lest this term should suggest the idea that our religious performances are intrinsically meritorious and propitiatory, and so detract from the all-sufficient merits of the great sacrifice which was once offered for the sins of the whole world. But this apprehension is also founded upon the mistaken notion that the sacrifices before the coming of Christ were really propitiatory; whereas, in truth, they had no real virtue apart from the merits of that prevailing sacrifice which they prefigured. Not one of the Jewish ceremonies and sacrificial rites could, in the least, avail to cleanse from sin, but as they were accepted by God for the sake of the offering of the body of Christ once for all. It does not, therefore, appear how the application of the term sacrifice to Christian oblations, and particularly to the Holy Eucharist, can encourage the supposition that they are intrinsically meritorious. But while it is freely admitted that none of these ceremonies, either before or after Christ, are in their own nature and by their own virtue meritorious, it may be safely maintained that, if they be done in and “by Him,” our “ Priest for ever,” then they are, through the atonement of the Cross, availing to the quieting of our consciences, the reconciling to God, the imparting of grace, and the forgiveness of sin. And this surely is especially true of that sacrifice of praise which has been ordained by Christ Himself as the perpetual memorial of the sacrifice of His death, and of the benefits which

we receive thereby. Observe: St. Paul, writing to the Hebrew converts, who of all people were most familiar with the import of the word “ sacrifice,” instead of avoiding the use of this term, as if all notion of the solemn offerings of the Mosaic law was to be carefully banished from their christianised minds as irreconcilable with the spirituality of the gospel, selects this very word to convey to them his idea of the character of Christian praise. Now, to the Jewish mind sacrifice was a solemn act surrounded with a ceremonial prescribed by God Himself. There was the trouble and expense of providing the oblation; then it was to be brought to the priest, who alone could present it with prayer to God and make it an acceptable sacrifice. We will conclude the subject with a few practical remarks suggested by the word “continually.” The worship of the Church is a sacrifice. But not only this, it is a continual sacrifice. There was the daily, morning, and evening sacrifice among the Jews. There has ever been the same daily services in the Catholic Church of Christ; and our own Anglican branch of it asserts this duty, and claims this privilege. Has our gracious Lord taught the Church to cry continually, “Give us this day our daily bread”; and does this petition suggest individual and domestic wants only, and not those of the people and nation also? Is it lawful for man to pray daily for common blessings, and must it not be a duty and a privilege to unite in prayer, in God’s own house of prayer, under the direction of His ministers? But besides this continual sacrifice, I would remind you of those more solemn days of fast and festival, upon which every devoted member of the Church Catholic (or at least some representative of his family) should present himself before the Lord, if he desires to be like, or fears to be very unlike, all Christians of bygone days. These levees of the King of kings will often be held on days inconvenient to the world. But we are not of the world, but subjects of another kingdom. But to realise this blessedness you must come to offer sacrifice. You must come in God’s way, and in compliance with the laws of His Church. Do not think too much, or immediately of the benefit, spiritual or temporal, which you hope to receive; but think first and chiefly of rendering to God that homage which is His due. Nor make much of the trouble or inconvenience which such duties may occasion you; rather to the “fruit of your lips,” add cheerfully the sacrifice of your time, your bodily strength, your worldly substance. (C. Wray, M. A.)

ThanksgivingWe must thank God for the mercies we have, or else we shall not have others.

In the early days when the Puritans settled in New England they were always having fast days. They had a fast day because their bread was getting short; another fast day because the Red Indians invaded them; another fast day because a ship had not arrived that they expected; and they had so many fast days that they began to get exceedingly weak. At length, one very wise brother said, “Did they not think it would be as well, now and then, to vary the thing, and to have a feast day occasionally? Would it not be quite as acceptable to God if instead of mourning over mercies they wanted, they were to thank Him for mercies enjoyed?” So they instituted what is called the thanksgiving day, which became a perpetual ordinance afterwards--the thanksgiving for mercies received. There is reason and wisdom in such a course. How dare you go and ask for anything else till you have been thankful for what you have? What do you with poor people who depend upon you? You gave the man some relief yesterday, and he walked away with an ungrateful face, shrugging shoulders, as much as to say, “That’s all!” Sometimes when you have given charity to a very greedy person, have you not seen him stand and look at it? What has been your rule when he comes next time? You have sent him away empty, and very properly is he punished. But how is it the Lord does not serve you the same? You ask Him for a mercy and you get it, and you either look at it as though it were not worth having, or else you enjoy it for a time and then forget you have ever had it, and never think of thanking Him; and then you knock at His door again, and expect that He will wait upon your lusts when you will not wait upon His throne with thanksgiving. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Thanksgiving in the heart:

As flowers carry dewdrops, trembling on the edges of the petals, and ready to fail at the first waft of wind or brush of bird, so the heart should carry its beaded words of thanksgiving; ‘and at the first breath of heavenly flavour, let down the shower, perfumed with the heart’s gratitude. (H. W. Beecher.)Praising God:

In praising a fellow creature we may easily surpass the truth; but in praising God we have only to go on acknowledging and confessing what He really is to us. Here it is impossible to exceed the truth; and here is genuine praise. (J. A. Bengel.)Praise:

Gurnall spoke of “the double action of the lungs”--the air sucked in by prayer and breathed forth again in praise. Little rent:

The Lord has many fine farms from which He receives but little rent. Thanksgiving is a good thing: thanksliving is better. (P. Henry.)A line of praise

A line of praises is worth a leaf of prayer; and an hour of praises is worth a day of fasting and mourning.. (J. Livingston.)Thankless people

Pliny says in his Natural History there m a certain people in India, upon the river Ganges, called Aotomy, who have no mouth, but feed upon the smell of herbs and flowers. We have some of the same kind of people in England: when, under the afflicting hand of God, they have no lips to praise God, nor tongues to justify Him. (J. W. Kirton.)Praise:

Hard by the table of shewbread commemorating His bounty should stand the altar of incense denoting our praise. (C. H. Spurgeon.)Gratitude an aid to enjoyment:

Many favours which God giveth us ravel out for want of hemming, through our own unthankfulness; for though prayer purchases blessings, giving praise doth keep the quiet possession of them. “Have we thanked Him?”

A lady, hearing of a poor gipsy boy lying very ill in a tent, was anxious to visit him. In her endeavours to do so she met with much abuse and a refusal from the boy’s father. At last, however, the father consented to her visiting his dying son. Entering the tent, she found the poor lad lying on a heap of straw and in great suffering. She spoke to him of Jesus, and His love for sinners; of His cruel death and resurrection; and was astonished to see the boy’s frame shaken with sobs. To her inquiry about his distress, he gasped, “Oh, miss, and I’ve never so much as thanked Him!” Have we thanked Him?

Verse 16Hebrews 13:16

But to do good, and to communicate, forget notChristian beneficence:

I.WHAT THE EXPRESSIONS TO “DO GOOD “AND TO” COMMUNICATE” DENOTE.

1. To “do good” is to do whatever may tend to promote the good and happiness of our neighbour; to prevent any peril or misfortune he may be exposed to, or to deliver him out of any circumstances of adversity which he may be in. The goods or evils we are capable of in this world either respect our spiritual or our temporal state. If he requires our advice we ought to give it in the best manner we can; if our assistances we ought to discover a readiness to gratify him in any reasonable request.

2. To communicate, or distribute, is to set apart some proportion of those good things the providence of God has blessed us with to the benefit and relief of others.

II. WHY DOING GOOD AND COMMUNICATING ARE SACRIFICES ACCEPTABLE AND WELL-PLEASING TO GOD.

1. By beneficence and charitable actions we imitate God in one of the glorious and moral perfections of His nature. That perfection which He seems Himself to exalt above all His other attributes, and without which they would render Him rather an object of terror than love to us.

2. Hereby we do honour to the providence of God. For probably this, among other reasons, may be one why God has put so great a number of men under circumstances of want, that those who are in a better capacity may have constant occasions of exerting themselves in all the good offices of humanity and love, which are the brightest ornaments of human nature; and that others, seeing these their good works, may be more effectually excited to glorify God.

3. By acts of beneficence we discover the power which religion has over us, and the sincerity of our love to God. This is the most sensible argument that we can give to ourselves or others, that our hearts are right with God, and that religion has in truth some power over us. But in truth, though acts of charity may in many respects interfere with the maxims of self-love, and seem to cross the designs of avarice and worldly-mindedness; yet it will appear under my next and last particular.

4. That they are agreeable to one of the prime and essential inclinations of human nature. God has implanted in our very frame a compassionate sense of the sufferings of other people, which disposes us to contribute to

their relief; so that when we see any of our fellow creatures in circumstances of distress we are naturally, I had almost said, mechanically, inclined to be helpful to them. One reason why God has given us these natural sentiments of compassion may be that man, of all other beings upon earth, stands in the greatest need of the help of his fellow creatures; for whereas Nature, when she brings other creatures in the world, puts them in a readier way of making some provision for themselves. Man is born more exposed, and even in his full strength he would at the best but pass his time very ill were it not for the many comforts and conveniences which he reaps from society. As God has made man a sociable creature, it was a very wise design of His providence to train him up in such a manner for society as might give him the strongest impressions of all the duties of humanity and respect, which he owes to it, anal wherein the peace and happiness of it principally consist. (R. Fiddes, D. D.)

Doing good:There is no good for man but to do good. To do good is in accordance with our

highest reason, and commands universal approval; for, whatever may be the practice of the selfish and the churlish, even they are constrained, though in stinted phrase, to commend the generous. Whether we appeal to our personal consciousness, or the general judgment of mankind, the man who lives for others, and labours, even at a sacrifice, to assist and elevate them, receives the homage of the common heart. A parent, self-indulgent, neglectful, or failing to provide for the wants of those dependent upon him, or seeking to render the lives of his children subservient to his indolence or personal indulgence, is an object of contempt and reprobation. A prince who should squander the revenues of his kingdom on plans of personal aggrandisement, or schemes of wild ambition, is universally condemned, and men rise up in rebellion against him. The scholar who merely acquires knowledge for the delight it affords him, without seeking to apply it to the common good, is regarded with indifference or pity; even an angel would be neither the object of approval nor envy, who only lived to breathe in celestial joys, and was ready neither to wait nor to serve. God Himself is adored as the good, because He is the Giver of every good; nor can we conceive of Him as either indifferent to the happiness of His creatures, or regardless of their fate, without feeling that He would cease to command our reverence or cull forth our love, and would be like the fancied gods of the heathen, whose only vocation is

to quaff their bowls of nectar and feast on ambrosia. The honoured dead, whose memories are cherished, and whose names are treasured as heirlooms of the race, are not those who, immured in palaces, have spent their lives in extravagant pleasures, but those who have endured hardship, and sacrificed ease, and even life, in conferring great boons on their generation. Not the rulers of the race, but its benefactors, are revered; not the high potentates, but the wise statesmen; not the ambitious warrior, but the devoted patriot, are held in loving remembrance; not he who has waded through the blood of others to the throne of a kingdom, but he who has shed his own blood to obtain or defend the liberties of a nation, will find a perennial monument in the grateful heart of posterity. To do good is not only in accordance with our highest reason, and the prompting of our best instincts, but it is the very genius of our common Christianity. If we are brought near to God by a true faith, we must become like Him in the exercise of a pure love. And how shall we do good? We live in a time of great opportunities and manifold facilities, of multiplied means of usefulness. Our capability is our only limit. But we should specially seek to do good by faithfully discharging all the duties of our vocation and sphere, by cheerfully responding to all the obligations which arise out of our relations to the home, the church, and the world; by honest work, true words, and daring deeds; and by using our influence directly and indirectly for the furtherance of any good work. We should do good by heartily sustaining, extending, and transmitting the gospel, and all its ordinances; in the erection of churches, the planting of missions, and the establishment of schools; by relieving the distressed, succouring the needy, and comforting the sorrow-stricken, both personally and through the agency of others, in connection with charitable societies and humane institutions; and by daily deeds of love and frequent gifts of affection and gratitude. To do good is the dictate of humanity, the demand of duty, the claim of justice, and the plea of interest; and each loving, feeling heart may readily find its appropriate work. (Christian World Pulpit.)Doing good and being good:

The man who fails to fulfil his mission to others, fails to find the end and meaning of his own life; cease to do good and you will soon cease to be good, and will make shipwreck of your personal hope. The Jews were God’s witnesses of this. Instead of making all nations love them and seek to walk in the light of their life as a people, they managed to make all nations hate and persecute them--with a hatred, moreover, that deepened with the ages, and at length wrought their utter ruin. You may say that this was the inevitable result of the

position of a godly people in the midst of a heathen world. At first it might be so, but not permanently. Christianity has won its way, first to toleration, then to honour--Judaism never did; and yet the peoples around were far from indisposed to receive its impressions. Joseph won his way at once at Memphis, Daniel at Babylon. And Joseph and Daniel had nothing but what Judaism had. They were Jews to the heart’s core, and the history of their missionary work stands in everlasting record to shame their countrymen, and to justify the ways of God, when “the wind bound up the self-centred and exclusive people in her wings,” and bore them into a far captivity, where, unless they were prepared to renounce their nationality, they must bear witness for God, whether they would or no. (J. Baldwin Brown.)The useful life missed:

When an oak, or any noble and useful tree, is uprooted, his removal creates a blank. For years after, when you look to the place which once knew him, you see that something is missing. The branches of adjacent trees have not yet supplied the void. They still hesitate to supply the place formerly filled by their powerful neighbour; and there is still a deep chasm in the ground--a rugged pit--which shows how far his giant roots once spread. But when a leafless pole, a wooden pin, is plucked up, it comes easy and clean away. There is no rending of the turf, no marring of the landscape, no vacuity created, no regret. It leaves no memento, and is never missed. Which are you? Are you cedars planted in the house of the Lord, casting a cool and grateful shadow on those around you? Are you palm-trees, fat and flourishing, yielding bounteous fruit, and making all who know you bless you? Are you so useful, that were you once away it would not be easy to fill your place again, but people, as they pointed to the void in the plantation, the pit in the ground, would say, “It was here that that old palm-tree diffused his familiar shadow, and showed his mellow clusters”? Or, are you a peg, a pin, a rootless, branchless, fruitless thing, that may be pulled up any day, and no one ever care to ask what has become of it? What are you doing? What are you contributing to the world’s happiness, or the Church’s glory? What is your business? (J. Hamilton, D. D.)“What can I do?”

The Rev. Spencer Compton, an evangelical minister at Boulogne, relates the following incident: “During a voyage to India, I sat one dark evening in my cabin feeling thoroughly unwell, as the sea was rising fast and I was but a poor sailor. Suddenly the cry of ‘Man overboard!’ made me spring to my feet. I heard a

trampling overhead, but resolved not to go on deck lest I should interfere with the crew in their efforts to save the poor man. ‘What can I do?’ I asked myself, and instantly unhooking my lamp, I held it near the top of my cabin and close to my bull’s-eye window, that its light might shine on the sea, and as near the ship as possible. In half-a-minute’s time I heard the joyful cry, ‘It’s all right, he’s safe,’ upon which I put my lamp in its place. The next day, however, I was told that my little lamp was the sole means of saving the man’s life; it was only by the timely light which shone upon him that the knotted rope could be thrown so as to reach him.” We should do good in our own sphere:

Keep in the way of your place and calling, and take not other men’s works upon you, without a call, under any pretence of doing good. Magistrates must do good, in the place and work of magistrates; and ministers, in the place and work of ministers; and private men, in their private place and work; and not one man step into another’s place, and take his work out of his hand, and say, “I can do it better”; ford if you should do it better, the disorder will do more harm than you did good by bettering his work. One judge must not step into another’s court and seat, and say, “I will pass more righteous judgment.” You must not go into another man’s school, and say, “I can teach your scholars better”; nor into another’s charge or pulpit, and say, “I can preach better.” The servant may not rule the master because he can do it best, no more than you may take another man’s wife, or house, or lands, or goods, because you can use them better than he. Do the good you are called to do. (R. Baxter.)Exert your talents:

“Exert your talents,” said Dr. Samuel Johnson, “and distinguish yourself. Do not think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a man whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing while there but sit and growl.” Activity is the key to a useful Christian life. The key to activity is opening the doors o! our hearts, and letting the river of Christ’s love constantly flow through. Our realisation of Christ’s love prompts us to love our fellow-man, and strive to lighten his burden. Then, too, the best way to be active in God’s service is to embrace every opportunity to do our fellow-man all the good we can, knowing that he that is faithful unto death shall be given a crown of life. The most beautiful thing in the world is a good deed:

How can this be otherwise, when everything else that is beautiful is only a symbol of a deed? What are beautiful words but more or less imperfect signs for recording and perpetuating the actions which inspired them? No poem, no work of art, is beautiful unless it expresses some phase of action. The calmest landscape represents the play of light and shade, and perpetuates some instantaneous phase of motion; the marble statue represents the body in some form of actions; music is always the soul in motion; the deed gets expressed by symbols; but it is the deed which possesses the intrinsic beauty, and not the symbol. Therefore we should not think that we are incapable of apprehending and rendering the beautiful in life because we cannot write poems, or paint pictures, or carve statues. So long as we are capable of doing good and beautiful deeds, are we capable of rising to that intrinsic beauty of life which the mere art-form does nothing more than express. What if a woman cannot paint a Raphael’s Madonna, when she can be herself a Madonna, a holy mother? What though a man cannot write a grand and beautiful poem, so be it he lives a grand and beautiful life? This was the spirit that was in Christ. He was the greatest of all artists because He lived the greatest and most beautiful of lives. What He did was even more beautiful than what He said. And in the essential beauty of the deed we are all capable of being like Him. Is his purse converted?

A Methodist labourer in Wesley’s time, Captain Webb, when any one informed him of the conversion of a rich man, was in the habit of asking, “Is his purse converted?” He agreed with Dr. Adam Clarke, who used to say, he did not believe in the religion that cost a man nothing. Giving, a sign of perfectness:

When wheat is growing it holds all its kernels tight in its own ear. But when it is ripe the kernels are scattered every whither, and it is only the straw that is left. (H. W. Beecher.)Practical gratitude:

Rohese, the mother of Thomas a Becket, was a very devout woman in her day. It was her custom to weigh her boy every year on his birthday against money, clothes and provisions, which she gave to the poor. (H. O. Mackey.)The rhubarb pie plan:

During a discussion in a certain church, on the question of the duty of giving, a brother well known for his generous benefactions, was asked what part of his income he was in the habit of contributing to the Lord’s treasury. “I do not know,”

said the brother; “I do very much as the woman did who was famous for the excellence of her rhubarb pies. She put in as much sugar as her conscience would allow, and then shut her eyes and put in a handful more. I give all my conscience approves, and then add a handful without counting it.” We commend this plan to those who believe that “he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully,” and who wish to err upon the safe side. Many men seem afraid of giving too much; but among all the failures in business of which we have heard, we have never known an instance where a man has ruined himself by giving to the poor or to the cause of God. “Munificent bequests”

We often read in the papers of “ munificent bequests.” To my mind it is a phrase that has no meaning at all. I see no munificence in bequeathing your property to charitable purposes when you are gone out of the world and have not the possibility of longer enjoying it. What I like are munificent donations. (Lord Shaftesburg.)True measure of charity

It has been frequently wished by Christians that there were some rule laid down in the Bible fixing the proportion of their property which they ought to contribute to religious uses. This is as if a child should say, “Father, how many times in the day must I come to you with some testimonial of my love? how often will it be necessary to show my affection for you?” The father would of course reply, “Just as often as your feeling prompts you, my child, and no oftener.” Just so Christ says to His people, “Look on Me, and see what I have done and suffered for you, and then give Me just what you think I deserve. I do not wish anything forced.” (H. G. Salter.)

With such sacrifices God is well pleasedSacrifice--true and false:

Thousands think that if they are outwardly decent, if they veneer their lives with a decorous respectability, they are very good Christians; and that, though they neither love God nor their neighbour, but are simply walking after their own heart’s lusts. But it is not all men who are able thus to scarify the surface of their spiritual being. Deeper natures, tortured by the scourge of conscience, seeing how useless it must be to give to God that which costs them nothing, feel impelled, since they will not give Him the pure life and the loving heart, to give Him something else of a costly kind. It is this feeling which led to the awful horror of human sacrifices. But all this externality of affliction, of suffering, is vain. God

is no Moloch; He delights in innocent happiness, and not in self-chosen suffering. Bodily suffering has ever proved itself vain to expel spiritual sin, and God would fain deliver us from sin, which cannot be done by vain attempts to anticipate the penalty. With such sacrifices God is not well pleased. We can in the fullest sense offer no sacrifice to God that will save us. It cost more to redeem our souls, so that we must let that alone for ever. That has been done for us. But in a lower sense the word sacrifice is applied in this verse to that which we can offer to God. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” “But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” The type of all such passages is that magnificent question and answer in the prophet Micah (Micah 6:6-8). Do not let any of us pretend that we do not know what God requires of us. To communicate: What does it mean? It means unselfishness as regards what we possess, not to keep to ourselves what we have, to use our gifts in whatever way seems best for the good of the world, to remember that we are the stewards of what God gives us, and not the owners; to be cheerful givers; to learn the exquisite happiness of living for the good of all others, to have the heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathise: with such sacrifices God is well pleased. And to do good: it is not only to give; indeed, the indiscriminate, careless charity which gives to silence greedy demands or satisfy a conventional conscience; the reckless, foolish giving which only fosters the plague-spots of pauperism and imposture is worse than useless, it is a curse. Almsgiving, to be any use at all, must be thoughtful and discriminating. To do good: there you have the summary of a true life. We are on earth to give, and not to receive. We are not our own. Am I in this life of mine doing any real, unselfish good? Millions do positive harm. Like barren trees, they not only bring forth no fruit, but curse the ground with the blight of their bitter foliage and their unprofitable shadow. Millions, if they do no direct or positive harm, yet do absolutely no good. They sleep and feed and go through some sort of mechanical routine in their profession for themselves--no more. Their life is no true life; they die, but they have never lived. But among the millions who do deep harm, and the millions who do no real good, how many are there who can really be counted among the lovers of their fellow-men? These do see how often from efforts apparently infinitesimal and insignificant, lonely, inefficient, and as it seemed obscure, vast blessings come, and even when good men see no great positive result of their self-denial they feel within them the

peace of a calm conscience and a blessed sense that their humble endeavours are accepted of their God. (Archdeacon Farrar.)With such sacrifices God is well pleased

1. He is so, first, because He is pleased with the spirit of faith. Such charity arises out of that faith which the apostle describes as “the evidence of things not seen”; for you observe that when our Lord counsels His disciples not to lay up treasure on earth, but in heaven, He makes an appeal to their faith. When He says--“If thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just,” He requires us to believe that we shall appear before the judgment-seat of God, to receive according to the things done in the body. When, then, in expectation of these things--these things not seen but believed, not possessed but hoped for--we expend what we do possess and see; when we resign the means of present gratification; when we part with what might please the natural inclination--satisfy “the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life”--we give a proof of faith of the same sort as that of Abraham, when at the call of God he gave up what is dear to every man--his country, and his kindred.

2. God approves the man who distributes and does good, because He sees in him a spirit of obedience. It is part of the arrangement by which the world is governed, that there should be a connection between the several classes of mankind--such mutual dependence as of servants on their employers, of children on their parents, of a people on their spiritual pastor, of the poor on those who are better endowed; and it is only while the links of the chain, constructed by God Himself, are sound and uninterrupted, that the balance of the whole is preserved, and the machine proceeds in conformity with its Maker’s design. “The end of the commandment is charity.” This is the purpose of God’s revelation of Himself by His beloved Son--that when, through unfeigned faith in the atonement made for sin, the conscience is set at ease, and the heart sincerely converted to God, the result should be charity--love of man towards his fellow-men, springing from the love of God towards himself, and nourished by a constant sense of His mercy. When, therefore His Spirit has established this principle in this heart, then and not before the gospel has dominion there. (Abp. Sumner.)

The sacrifice of Christian beneficence:--We are not to offer on the altar of Christian charity the halt, blind, lame, the mere offal of our comforts which we deem below our notice; nor are we content with yielding up the surplus of our possessions which we do not want and cannot use. We must be prepared to make “sacrifices” Did the Son of God exhibit a species of compassion which cost Him nothing? Did He, without effort and humiliation merely give us, if I may so speak, the surplus of His riches, the redundance of His glory? Altogether the opposite: “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through His poverty, might become rich.” (J. A. James.)

Verse 17Hebrews 13:17

Obey them that have the ruleRulership in the Church

I.THAT THE DUE OBEDIENCE OF THE CHURCH, IN ALL ITS MEMBERS, UNTO THE RULERS OF IT, IN THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR OFFICE AND DUTY, IS THE BEST MEANS OF ITS EDIFICATION, AND THE CHIEF CAUSE OF ORDER AND PEACE IN THE WHOLE BODY. Therefore is it here placed by the apostle, as comprehensive of all ecclesiastical duties.

II. AN ASSUMPTION OF RIGHT AND POWER BY ANY TO RULE OVER THE CHURCH, WITHOUT EVIDENCING THEIR DESIGN AND WORK TO BE A WATCHING FOR THE GOOD OF THEIR SOULS, IS PERNICIOUS UNTO THEMSELVES, AND RUINOUS UNTO THE CHURCH ITSELF.

III. Those who do attend with conscience and diligence unto the discharge of the work of the ministry towards their flocks, committed in an especial manner unto their charge, HAVE NO GREATER JOY OR SORROW IN THIS WORLD THAN WHAT ACCOMPANIES THE DAILY ACCOUNT WHICH THEY GIVE UNTO CHRIST OF THE DISCHARGE OF THEIR DUTY AMONGST THEM, AS THEIR SUCCESS FALLS OUT TO BE.

IV. Much of the life of the ministry and benefit of the Church DEPENDS ON THE CONTINUAL GIVING AN ACCOUNT UNTO CHRIST, BY PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING, OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH, AND SUCCESS OF THE WORD THEREIN. Those guides who esteem themselves obliged thereunto, and do live in the practice of it, will find their minds engaged thereby unto constant

diligence and earnest labouring in the discharge of their duty. And the dealings of Christ with the Church itself are regulated according unto this account, as the last words do manifest. (John Owen, D. D.)The reciprocal duties of ministers and people:

The relation which is formed between a minister of the gospel and the people committed to his charge is highly important. It is a relation most sacred in itself, and most awful in its consequences; and the duties which spring from it are such as ought to be well understood by both parties.

I. THE DUTY OF MINISTERS TO THEIR PEOPLE IS THUS DESCRIBED. They “have the rule over them,” or, as the word may properly moan, have the “guidance” of them; and “watch for their souls.” This expression denotes that no small degree of diligence, perseverance, and anxiety is necessary for the discharge of the ministerial office. At least it implies that a minister in the faithful exercise of his calling is required to perform two things.

1. Solemnly to admonish the people of their danger. 2. To look out for every convenient opportunity of doing good to their souls.

Now observe the obligation which they are under to a faithful performance of their duty. “They watch for your souls as they that must give account” (see Ezekiel 3:17-19; Ezekiel 34:4; Ezekiel 43:7-10).

II. It must be plain THAT DUTY BEGETS DUTY. If ministers be required to have the rule over their people and to watch for their souls, what must be required of their people in return but obedience and submission?

1. It is the duty of the people to attend on their minister with a disposition to receive and follow his instructions.

2. It is the duty of the people to bear with the importunity and solicitude of their minister in watching for their souls. They are not to take offence at his plain speaking, nor be impatient under his friendly admonitions.

3. It is the duty of the people to join with their minister in such plans and attempts as may best promote the object of his ministry. Does he, for example, point out any particular means by which immorality and ungodliness may be checked, or the cause of true religion may be encouraged and strengthened? In these cases his people are justly required to attend to his proposals; and by their support to forward his endeavours. From this view of the people’s duty towards their minister let us turn to the obligations which they are under to discharge it.

Ministerial duty, responsibility, and reward

I. MINISTERIAL DUTY. 1. The objects of ministerial solicitude. “Your souls.” 2. The expression of ministerial solicitude. “They watch.” This includes love

for immortal souls, manifested in a constant attention to their interests, and a devotedness to their welfare.

II. MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY. 1. This responsibility refers to their commission. Christ will employ in His work

a friend that loves Him; not a stranger, much less an enemy. It has been well remarked that the Church had formerly wooden vessels, but golden priests; since that she has had golden vessels and wooden priests.

2. This responsibility refers to the fidelity which is required on their part. 3. It refers to the account which they must finally render.

III. MINISTERIAL REWARD. 1. What they deprecate. That they may not give their account with grief. 2. What they desire. “That they may give account with joy.” How animating to

the labourer is success! 3. The interest of the people in both. Both in what ministers deprecate and in

what they desire. Our disappointment may have an influence on us. It may weaken us in the way; it may bring us down broken-hearted to the grave. But our disappointment is your ruin! It may grieve us, but it will destroy you. Our satisfaction is your conversion. Your increase is delightful to us, but it is your salvation. (John Davis.)

Duties owing to ministers1. Reverence in regard of their office. Alexander reverenced Jaddus. Herod,

John the Baptist. Obadiah called Elias Lord. “My father,” said Josiah to Elisha. If we reverence them not the word will not have so free a passage among us. They that use their pastors unreverently sin against God.

2. Love. Have them in exceeding love for their work’s sake. It is the best work in the world, the saving of your souls; therefore love them for it. You love the fathers of your bodies that brought you into the world, and wilt ye not love them that beget you with the word of truth and bring you to a kingdom?

3. Obedience to their doctrine, exhortations, and admonitions. You will obey the prescript of the physician for the health of your bodies; though it be a bitter potion, you take it well at his hands; and will you not obey them that

give you counsel for your souls, though their reproofs be bitter, their rebukes sharp (Titus 1:13)?

4. Maintenance. All rulers must be maintained. The king hath maintenance due from the people, and so must the minister. In the fear of God, if ye be good and religious people, discharge the duties that God requireth to them that have the spiritual government of you. Why? There be two reasons to excite us to it; the one taken from the matter of their work, the other from the manner of their working. They are your watchmen; therefore submit yourselves to them, love them, regard them. Not over your goods and bodies, as the magistrate is, but over your souls, which are more precious; not as the fowler watcheth for the bird to catch it and kill it, but they watch for the preservation and eternal salvation of your souls; therefore submit yourselves to them. The second reason is taken from the manner of their working; they would gladly do their work with joy; they would watch over you with joy, which they cannot do if you be peevish, perverse, and froward. Therefore submit yourselves to them. What though we grieve them? What care we? Will such a thing grieve him? He shall be sure to have it then; we will do it for the nonce. Some are at this pass. But you shall have no benefit by that; you hurt yourselves more than them. (W. Jones, D. D.)

Ministers as generals:The ancient knight was a cleaver of skulls, a fighting man rather than a leader;

his great force lay in muscle, not brain. But who ever thought of estimating the value of Napoleon upon a battle-field by the blows he gave? He wielded an army, not a sword. Ministers should covet earnestly the general’s gift. The man who has the faculty of getting others to work, keeping them at their work and wisely directing their work, will get more done than any solitary labourer can do, though he be strong as Samson and diligent as Paul. (S. Coley.)

They watch for your soulsMinisters are watchmen

I. THE OFFICE OF WATCHMAN IS ONE OF APPOINTMENT. II. THE OFFICE OF WATCHMAN IS ONE OF TRUST. III. THE OFFICE OF WATCHMAN IS ONE OF RESPONSIBILITY.

1. For his time. 2. For his diligence. 3. For his vigilance.

4. For his fidelity. Application: We learn

1. The solemn character of the ministerial calling. A calling which demands great personal piety, as well as high spiritual gifts.

2. The arduous duties of the ministerial office. So arduous as to claim all the faculties of the mind and all the energies of the body.

3. The great necessity that they should receive Christian sympathy and comfort.

4. The personal responsibility of those over whom they watch. 5. Jesus, the great and blessed keeper of Zion, is the model every Christian

minister should study and imitate. (J. Buras, D. D.)Solicitude for souls:

In one of McCheyne’s manuscripts there occurs this sentence--“As I was walking in the fields, the thought came over me with almost overwhelming power that every one of my flock most soon be in heaven or hell. Oh, how I wished that I had a tongue like thunder that I might make all hear; or that I had a frame like iron that I might visit every one and say, ‘Escape for thy life!’ Ah, sinners! you little know how I fear that you will lay the blame of your damnation at my door.” (Life of R. M. McCheyne.)The solemnity of the minister’s work

"I continually hear the surges of eternity beating against my study door,” said an eminent minister of the gospel. Responsibility recognised

A captain whose ship was nearing a reel gave orders to keep off. To a remark of approval the captain replied, “It is necessary that I should be very careful, because I have souls on board. I think of my responsibility, and remember that souls are very valuable.” Ministerial responsibility

I verily believe that had I been adequately affected by the whole matter, even as I might have apprehended it then, I should never have gone to Stepney (the college) after all. It strikes me with awe at this hour that I should have undertaken what I have found to be so veritably the burden of the Lord. A vision of my Norwich life, had I seen it at Fen Court, would have led me to withdraw my application to the committee on the spot. A vision of my Bloomsbury Chapel life, had I seen it as I passed that evening into my college chamber, would have sent me back to my bench at Mr. Field’s and to my occasional services to the rustics

at Collier’s End. However, no such visions did appear to me; and perhaps in mercy the weightier ultimate responsibilities which were involved were hidden from my eyes. (W. Brock, D. D.)Care for souls:

Dr. Bushnell greatly interested himself in providing a park for the town in which he lived. Writing to Dr. Bartol, he said, “One thing I have learned by this undertaking--namely, to wonder why it is that as a Christian teacher and pastor I am so feebly exercised, so little burdened by my work. It fills me with doubt and shame and grief; and the result has been to make me fully resolved that I will either be a more responsible, more efficient minister of Jesus Christ or none. I cannot shake off those words of Paul--they are ringing continually in my ears--‘I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.’ This park matter has been a kind of revelation to me, which I pray God I may never forget. Why should I carry a park to bed with me, and work it over in my dreams during the night, and wake with it in the morning, and yet be so little exercised in the magnificent work of the gospel and the care of souls? It makes me doubt whether doing a thing professionally we do not sometimes do it idly and, perfunctorily, as if we did it not. Do we really believe that Jesus is a Saviour, and that in any significant sense of the words He brings salvation? Thoughts of this kind have been working in me of late with such power that I have become wholly dissatisfied with myself. I thought I meant something when I preached Christ to men; but I see that I must do more, that I must have the men upon my spirit, that I must bear them as a burden and hold myself responsible for them. God help me!” (Life of Dr. Bushnell.)Ministerial faithfulness

Gladstone once said to an audience, “I don’t come here to tell you what you want to hear; but what I think is true and just.” (J. Clifford, D. D.)The gospel the best message:

He (the late Rev. W. O. Simpson) never reasoned with the gospel; he reasoned with sinners: the gospel was his message. (E. E. Jenkins, D. D.)

Verse 18Hebrews 13:18

Pray for usPrayer for ministers

I.SOME CONSIDERATIONS TO ILLUSTRATE AND CONFIRM THE NECESSITY OF SUCH PRAYER.

1. The awful responsibility of the ministerial office. 2. We are men of like passions with yourselves, with bodies requiring to be

kept under, and with souls to save. II. SOME SUITABLE HEADS OF PRAYER.

1. First of all, pray that “utterance may be given unto us, that we may open our mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.” The full and free declaration of “ the gospel of the grace of God” is the crowning part of the Christian minister’s office.

2. Again, “pray” for your minister, that in dispensing among you the Word of God, he may be enabled rightly to divide it. Much spiritual wisdom is required here.

3. But, again, “pray for us,” that the truths which we preach to you may be so deeply impressed upon our own souls by the Spirit of God that they may always exert a commanding influence over our life, conversation, and whole deportment, and thus become the springs of a holy and consistent walk.

4. Again, “pray for us,” that we may be made conquerors over our peculiar temptations as ministers--that we may never speak to you “smooth things” merely for the sake of pleasing you.

5. Yet, again, “pray for us,” that we are bold and faithful witnesses for Christ, God would keep us lowly and humble in ourselves, and enable us to ascribe all that we are, and have, and may become, to His free favour.

III. The truth is simply this: a minister cannot be blessed without his flock being made to experience a correspondent share of blessing. YOUR PRAYERS FOR ME WILL BE CROWNED WITH INTEREST TO YOURSELVES. You will find your own souls growing in grace “ and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” You will find yourselves daily becoming more ripe for “ the inheritance of the saints in light.” Thus it is that God graciously orders that our labours of love for one another should be reflected upon ourselves. (H. Cadell, M. A.)

We trust we have a good conscienceBalm from Gilead to recover conscience

I. WHAT CONSCIENCE IS.

1. It is an inbred faculty of the soul, “a noble and Divine power, planted of God in the soul, working upon itself by reflection”: or thus, “the soul of a man recoiling upon itself.” A faculty, I call it, because it produceth acts, and is not got and lost as habits are, but is inseparable from the soul, immovable from the subject, as neither acts nor habits are. In the understanding part it is a judge, determining and prescribing, absolving and condemning de jure. In the memory it is a register, a recorder, and witness, testifying de facto. In the will and affections, a jailor and executioner, punishing and rewarding. Say we not in common use of speech, which is the emperor of words, My conscience tells me I did or did not such a thing, which is an action of the memory? My conscience bids me do, or forbids me to do this or this, which is but an action of the will. It smites me, it checks me, it comforts or it torments me: what are these but actions of the affections recoiling upon the soul?

2. God hath given it more force and power to work upon men than all other agents whatsoever. It, being internal and domestical, hath the advantage of all foreign and outward.

3. It being individual and inseparable, there is no putting of it to flight or flying from it. It was bred and born with us; it will live and die with us. Agues a man may shake off, tyrants and ill masters a man may fly from; but this saith (as Ruth to Naomi), “I will go with thee whithersoever thou goest.” It hath more immediate deputation and authority from God (of whom all principalities and powers receive theirs) than angels, kings, magistrates, father, mother, or any other superior. It is only inferior to God.

II. WHAT A GOOD CONSCIENCE IS. 1. The goodness of it is the peace of it; for stirring, accusing, and galling

consciences are consequents of sin, and presuppose some evil. 2. They, secondly, prove good unto us only by accident, and God’s goodness,

which maketh them as afflictions, gather grapes of thorns; yea, all things work to the best of His beloved, as physicians do poison in their confections

3. And thirdly, they do not always produce this effect. Sometimes as sicknesses and purgations, they are in order to health, as in the Jews (Acts 2:1-47). Oftentimes as in Cain, Judas, Ahithophel, they destroy their owners. Good consciences, therefore, properly to speak, are only quiet ones, excusing and comforting; but here take heed the devil, the great

impostor of our souls, put not upon our folly and simplicity, three sorts of quiet ones, as he doth to most: the blind, the secure, and the seared. What, then, is a good conscience? That which speaks peace with God’s allowance, which is a messenger of good things between God and us, that upon good grounds is in good terms with God. It lies in the lawful peace of it, and not in integrity and freedom from sin. (T. Adams.)

Take care of your conscience:We remember the old story of the mariners who, because they followed the

direction of their compass, thought they were infallibly right, until they arrived at an enemy’s port, and found themselves suddenly seized and made slaves. They did not take into consideration the possibility that any agency had tampered with the needle. Yet the wicked captain had, on purpose to betray the ship to enemies, so carefully concealed a large loadstone near the needle as to make it untrue to itself, and thus be the means of their ruin. Something not very unlike this is often true of conscience. Conscience may be perverted as truly as any other faculty of the soul--so perverted as even to mislead and destroy, while it is relied upon to direct in the path of safety. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways o! death.” We are warned, then, to take care of the conscience. See that there is no prejudice, no passion, no evil influence that is perverting it, and gradually making it untrue to itself, and therefore unsafe. We must examine the basis of our conscientiousness. Is there a concealed loadstone which is attracting the needle from its true polarity heavenward, toward spiritual foes and spiritual bondage? This is a vital question for every man. The comfort of a good conscience:

There is no friend so good as a good conscience. There is no foe so ill as a bad conscience. It makes us either kings or slaves. A man that hath a good conscience, it raiseth his heart in a princely manner above all things in the world. A man that hath a bad conscience, though he be a monarch, it makes him a slave. A bad conscience embitters all things in the world to him, though they be never so comfortable in themselves. What is so comfortable as the presence of God? What is so comfortable as the light? Yet a bad conscience, that will not be ruled, it hates the light, and hates the presence of God, as we see Adam, when he had sinned, he fled from God (Genesis 3:8). A bad conscience cannot joy in the midst of joy. It is like a gouty foot, or a gouty toe, covered with a velvet shoe.

Alas! what doth ease it? What doth glorious apparel ease the diseased body? Nothing at all. The ill is within. There the arrow sticks. (B. Sibbes.)A good conscience

A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves a constant ease and serenity within us, and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can possibly befall us. (T. Addison.)Conscience aided by right sympathies

It will be found that men are sensitive to right and wrong, not so much by reason of the direct impact of intellectual decision as by reason of intellectual decision transmitted through another faculty or emotion. Take an illustration out of my own experience--for it is always allowable, I believe, for a man to dissect his own sins. When I came to Brooklyn, feeling a certain independence, I refused to return marriage certificates to the authorities. There was no law which compelled me to do it, and I was not going to return them for mere form’s sake. By and by a law was passed that all clergymen should return marriage certificates to the Board of Health, but I did not do it then; I did not see any reason for it, and I was not going to trouble myself about it. But after the first year of the war, on two or three occasions it happened some woman would come to me and say, “My husband was killed on the battlefield; the Government owed him for bounty and back pay; but I cannot get the money unless I can prove that I was married to him: will you not give me a certificate? “I had none. I had made no return of their marriage, it did not take more than one argument like that to convince me that I ought to make returns of certificates of marriage. I said to myself, “If the bread of the poor is often to be determined by the fact of a marriage; if the fact of a marriage is a question of humanity, and can settle what is right and what is wrong, then my duty in the matter is clear”; and I believe I have not failed to return the certificate of a marriage since that day. The mere abstract law would not affect any conscience; but since my conscience was approached through sympathy, through benevolent feeling, you could not bribe me to neglect my duty in that regard. My conscience has strength on that side. (H. W. Beecher.)

Willing to live honestlyHonesty:

I. IN ORDER TO ILLUSTRATE THE EXCELLENCY AND IMPORTANCE OF THIS VIRTUE OF HONESTY, WE SHALL POINT OUT SOME OF THE FOUNTAINS FROM WHENCE THE OPPOSITE VICE FLOWS, OR SOME OF

THE CHIEF CAUSES OF DISHONESTY. Opposites frequently illustrate each other to great advantage. The beauty and charms of Christian virtue gain strength by arousing in us an abhorrence of immoral practices. Honesty will appear more honourable by awakening a proper hatred of the odious deformity of dishonesty. With regard to the chief springs of dishonesty, they may be contemplated. Under a general consideration, dishonesty arises from the same common source with all other kinds of iniquities. It arises from the awful depravity of the human heart. But the more particular causes of dishonesty are such things as these

1. Slothfulness, idleness, and an aversion to labour and the business of our calling.

2. Avarice or covetousness. 3. Luxury and extravagance. 4. Pride and selfishness.

II. SOME CONSIDERATIONS AND MOTIVES TO INDUCE US TO BE CONSCIENTIOUSLY HONEST IN ALL OUR EMPLOYMENTS, BUSINESS, AND CONVERSATION WITH OUR FELLOW-MEN. Can we now think a dishonest thought, contrive a dishonest scheme, or be guilty of a dishonest action? Consider the right every man has to enjoy his own, by the laws of nature, reason, religion and society, in respect to his person, property, and character. These blessings are the benefactions of heaven to all. Their right to the undisturbed possession of them is founded upon the grant of the God of nature and of grace.

1. Will the Almighty Sovereign see His creatures and His children rifled of their immunities and blessings, which His goodness and bounty hath conferred upon them, and not conceive resentment? Will He not whet His glittering sword, and His hand lay hold on vengeance?

2. Further consider, sincerity and honesty are the very bonds which hold society together. The religious observation of these virtues are the great means to advance its real interests. A dishonest person is a public nuisance, and may be viewed as a common enemy to mankind.

3. Consider the practice of dishonesty is prohibited in a thousand instances in the Word of God. The Divine wrath is revealed against it, both in His declarations, and in many examples recorded in the sacred history. (A. Macwhorter, D. D.)

Honesty spiritually rewarded

The religious tradesman complains that his honesty is a hindrance to his success; that the tide of custom pours into the doors of his less scrupulous neighbours in the same street, while he himself waits for hours idle. My brother, do you think that God is going to reward honour, integrity, highmindedness, with this world’s coin? Do you fancy that He will pay spiritual excellence with plenty of custom? Now, consider the price that man has paid for his success. Perhaps mental degradation and inward dishonour. His advertisements are all deceptive: his treatment of his workmen tyrannical; his cheap prices made possible by inferior articles. Sow that man’s seed mad you will reap that man’s harvest. Cheat, lie, advertise, be unscrupulous in your assertions, custom will come to you. But if the price is too dear, let him have his harvest, and take yours. Yours is a clear conscience, a pure mind, rectitude within and without. Will you part with that for his? Then why do you complain? He has paid his price; you do not choose to pay it. (F. W. Robertson.)Conscientiousness:

Of the Rev. S. F. Bridge, independent minister, his son says: His integrity was unbending. One circumstance in connection with domestic life demonstrated this sterling feature. A kind friend used sometimes to send a parcel of clothing, and on this occasion, in a coat pocket, a five-pound note was discovered. Many, even of the Lord’s people, might have appropriated the money, and thought it “quite a providence.” But father did not so. There are timely provisions and there are baits which test God’s family. He knew the donor’s habits, and would not take for granted that the note was intentionally submitted in a delicate manner, so he promptly sent it back with an explanation. I well remember how dear mother--her name was Martha--urged with tears that he should write first, and ascertain whether it had not been enclosed as a gift; but, although the value of five pounds was multiplied by the many mouths to be fed, she soon endorsed father’s way as the right one. I believe this matter was never known save to the Lord, the family, and the gentleman himself. That five pounds (lid not reach us again. (Sword and. Trowel.)Honest under all circumstances

Some years before England abolished slavery in the West Indies, a negro, who was a slave, but who had learned to become a Christian, was put up for sale. A kind master, who pitied his condition, and did not want him to fall into the hands of a cruel owner, went up to him, and said, “Sambo, if I buy you will you be

honest?” “With a look that I have no power to describe,” says the gentleman, the black man replied, “Massa, I will be honest whether you buy me or not.”

Verse 20-21Hebrews 13:20-21

The God of peaceThe God of peace and our sanctification

I.I call your attention to THE PECULIAR TITLE UNDER WHICH GOD IS ADDRESSED IN THIS PRAYER: “NOW, the God of peace.” The names of God employed in prayer in holy Scripture are always significant. Why, then, did the apostle here call God “ the God of peace”? He had a reason; what was it? Iris a Pauline expression. You find that title only in the writings of Paul. It is a name of Paul’s own coinage by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. There were reasons in Paul’s experience which led him to dwell upon this peculiar trait of the Divine character. Just as in our text he prays, “Perfect you in every good work to do His will,” so in Thessalonians he says, “And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is evident, not only that the apostle delighted in the expression peculiar to himself, but that he saw a close connection between the peace of God and the sanctifying of believers, and for this reason, both in the Thessalonians and in the Hebrews, his prayer for their sanctification is addressed to the God of peace. The title is a gospel one. God is not spoken of as the God of peace in the Old Testament; but there He is “a man of war, the Lord is His name”; “He shall cut off the spirit of princes; He is terrible to the kings of the earth.”

1. The appropriateness of the title to the particular prayer will readily strike you, for holiness is peace. “May the God of peace make you holy,” for He Himself is peace and holiness.

2. The God of peace has also graciously restored peace and reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, but it has been by the putting away of sin, for while sin remained peace was impossible. He died for our sins, but He rose again for our justification, which is none other than the replacing of us in a condition of reconciliation with God. He went into heaven to take possession of our inheritance; and what better evidence could there be that we are reconciled to God?

3. If you pursue the subject you will see more and more clearly the significance of the title, “the God of peace”; for, to make us perfect in every good work to do His will is to give us peace. Sin is our enemy, and the new life within us is heartily at enmity with evil, and therefore peace can never be proclaimed in the triple kingdom of our nature until we always do that which is well pleasing in the sight of the Lord, through Jesus Christ. Nor is this all.

4. When the apostle, praying for our sanctification, prays to the God of peace, it is as much as to say to us that we must view God as the God of peace if we are to be led to do His will. O man, is God your enemy? Then you will never serve Him, nor do that which is well pleasing in His sight. You must first of all know that there is peace between you and your God, and then you can please Him. This knowledge can only come to you through Christ Jesus, for peace is made only by “the blood of the everlasting covenant”.

5. I will call to your notice the fact that the title, “the God of peace,” sheds a light over the whole passage, and is beautifully in harmony with every word of the prayer. Let us read it line by line. “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.” War brings down to death; but the God of peace brings back from the dead. The restoration of the Lord Jesus from the grave was a peaceful act, and was meant to be the guarantee of peace accomplished for ever. “Through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” The very word “covenant” is also full of peace: and especially is it so when we remember that it is a covenant of peace which eternal love has established between God and man. The apostle goes on to pray, “Make you perfect in every good work to do His will.” If God’s will is done by us, then there must be peace, for no ground of difference can exist. “Working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight.” When all in us is well pleasing to God, then, indeed, is He the God of peace to us. The final doxology is also very significant, for in effect it proclaims the universal and eternal reign of peace: “To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” What can there be to disturb the universe when the Lord God omnipotent shall reign, and all nations shall glorify the Ever Blessed, world without end? Not without reason, therefore, did our apostle select the title, “The God of peace.”

II. We have now to consider THE SPECIAL ACT DWELT UPON” IN” THIS PRAYER. “That brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great

Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” The bringing back of the Lord Jesus from the dead was the seal of His perfected work, and consequently of our peace and ultimate perfection in holiness. Because He had wrought all righteousness, therefore did tie stand amongst living men; and because He had merited a crown of glory, therefore did He rise even to the throne of Jehovah, to sit there till His enemies are made His footstool. We go further yet. The bringing again of Christ from the dead was in effect the leading back of all His people. Not without the sheep did the Shepherd come, for that were to return defeated. The text speaks of “Our Lord Jesus.” Did you notice that? Ours in His offices of Shepherd and Saviour, altogether ours as brought again from the dead. What He did was for us. He is the great Shepherd of the sheep, and therefore what He did was for the sheep. “Because I live,” saith He, “ye shall live also” and because He lives to intercede, therefore His people are preserved from evil: Satan desires to have us, that he may sift us as wheat; but the great Shepherd, who was brought again from the dead, is daily watching over us, and the power of His life, and of His kingdom, and of His plea, are manifested in us, so that we conquer temptation, and advance from strength to strength in our pilgrimage to heaven.

III. Thirdly, let us notice THE VERY REMARKABLE MANNER IN WHICH THE HOLINESS PRAYED FOR IS DESCRIBED in the text: “Make you perfect in every good work to do His will.” That is the first clause, but the translation is not strictly accurate. The passage would be better rendered, “make you fit in every good work to do His will,” and the original Greek word properly means to reset a bone that is dislocated. The meaning of the text is this: by the fall all our bones are out of joint for the doing of the Lord’s will, and the desire of the apostle is that the Lord will set the bones in their places, and thus make us able with every faculty and in every good work to do His will. The first part of the prayer, then, is for fitness for holiness. The next is for actual service: “Working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight.” And here I ask you to notice how all things are of God. Even he who is best adapted for the performance of virtue and holiness, yet does not perform these things till the Lord worketh in him to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Over and above this mode of securing all the glory to God notice the next clause--“through Jesus Christ.” That which we do even when the Lord works in us we only do through Jesus Christ. We are nothing without our Lord, and though we do what is acceptable in the Lord’s sight, yet it is only acceptable through Jesus Christ.

IV. Our fourth point drops into its place very naturally, for we have already seen that THE WHOLE OF IT COMES TO A MOST APPROPRIATE CONCLUSION OF PRAISE: “To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” To glorify God is the object of it all. Praise is the flower for which the stalk of prayer exists. It would be a very difficult question to decide to whom the last clause alludes, whether to “ the God of peace,” or to “Our Lord Jesus,” and, therefore, I think, the safer way is to take them both together, for they are one. “To whom,” that is to God; “To whom,” that is to the Lord Jesus, “be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Let it be so; it ought to be so, it must be so, it shall be so. Amen. Amen. Tarry just a minute while we give glory unto the Three-One-God. He is the God of peace; approach Him with holy delight; adore Him; glorify His name evermore. Then magnify Him next, because He found for us a Shepherd. Glorify ]=lDDint next for the covenant. And then adore Him because the power which He exerted upon Christ He is now exerting upon you. Bless Him for every grace received, for faith however little, for love, even though it burn not as you would desire; bless Him for every conquered sin, bless Him for every implanted grace, bless Him evermore. Bless Him that He deals with you through Jesus Christ. Through the Mediator all good has come to us, and through the Mediator it will still come, until that day when He shall deliver up the throne to God, even the Father, and God shall be all in all. (C. H. Spurgeon.)The work of God

I. LOOK AT THE ASPECT IN WHICH GOD IS HERE PRESENTED. 1. A God of peace. Were we hastily to form our opinion of the character of

God from the aspects and condition of this world, we might come to a different conclusion. “God of peace”! Where is peace? Read the world’s past history, or survey its present condition! Has not every age been filled with wars? and what soil, from the sands of Africa to Polar snows, has not been drenched with human blood? Unconverted man is at peace--neither with himself, nor with others, nor with God. Shall we therefore conclude from this view of the world that He who is at once its Maker and Monarch is not a God of peace? Assuredly not. He had nothing to do with this miserable condition of affairs; and is neither to be judged by it, nor blamed for it. In a fatal hour, sin was admitted into our world; and the ship that takes a Jonah aboard parts with peace. She has nothing to look for but thunders and lightnings, and storms and tempests. But let God have His way, only let His will be done in earth as it is done in heaven, and such a

change were wrought on this world, as would recall the change that night saw on Galilee, when Jesus woke, and, rising in the boat, looked out on the tumbling sea, to say, “Peace, be still”--and in a moment there was a great calm.

2. God has made peace. “Fury is not in Me, saith the Lord.” He has turned from the fierceness of His anger, and made peace between Himself and man by the blood of the Cross; but not “peace at any price”--at the expense of His honour, holiness, justice, law, or truth. No. God has not overlooked the guilt of sin; He pardons, but does not palliate it. Peace, as has often been done between man and man, may be established on a!also basis. Take for example the States of America. Before they were actually rent asunder, they might have established a peace on the foundations of iniquity. Had they given ear to preachers who perverted the Word of God, and, regarding slavery as the white man’s right, and not the black man’s wrong, had they joined hand to hand to sacrifice the interests of humanity to those of commerce, they might have had peace instead of war. They might have cemented their union with the blood of slaves. But such a peace as that would have offered a complete contrast to the peace of the gospel. This preserves God’s honour. Not “peace at any price,” it is peace at such a price as satisfied the utmost demands of His law, and fully vindicated His holiness in the sight of the universe.

II. HE BROUGHT CHRIST FROM THE HEAD. 1. In one sense the glory of His resurrection belongs to Christ Himself. The

only thing else I have now to give, Jesus might say, is My life; and there it is. Of My own will, by My own, free, spontaneous act, I lay it down. All your wretched tools and cruel tortures, your crown of thorns and bloody Cross, cannot deprive Me of life. It is not you that take away My life; nor is it God. It is not taken away--but given; for I have power to lay it down, as I have power to take it up again. Hence our Lord’s claim on our love and gratitude. But He who said, “I have power to lay down My life,” also said, “I have power to take it up again”--as He had before intimated, when, the Jews having asked a sign of Hint, He said, referring to His body, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

2. Here our Lord’s resurrection is attributed to God. Here unquestionably; but not here only. Paul says, “He hath raised up Jesus again.”

In conclusion

1. Look at this aspect of Christ as the Great Shepherd of the sheep. How many are the elements of His greatness! He is a Divine Shepherd. And unlike other shepherds, who in the East dwell in tents, and here in the lowly cottages, His home is a palace, and His servants are the angels of heaven. How many are the shepherds He has under Him. Indeed, those who bear the greatest names in His Church are, though leaders, but part of the flock; He Himself being the only Shepherd, Bishop, and Overseer of souls. Nor here, as sometimes happens among men, is greatness separated from that goodness which is the best property of the two. But both properties, infinite in measure, meet in Christ. Paul calls Him the Great, but He calls Himself the Good Shepherd.

2. Glance at Paul’s prayer. “Make you perfect.” Could I express for you a better wish, or could you aim at a better object? I know that we are not perfect yet; far from it! In our imitation of Christ, how unlike is the’ fairest copy to the great original I Still there is no ground for despair. Perfect freedom from the power of sin, perfect obedience to the precepts and spirit of the law, perfect harmony to the mind and perfect conformity to the image of God, are within the bond, sealed with blood; and also in the prayer, “I will that those whom thou has given Me be with Me where I am.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The great pleas of a great prayerI. THE NAME OF GOD IS THE WARRANT FOR OUR LARGEST HOPE. God

is the God of peace, and, therefore, He will, if we will let Him, make us perfect unto every good work. That, of course, must imply that the peace which is here ascribed to Him, as its source and fontal possessor, is that deep and changeless calm of an infinite and perfectly harmonious being which is broken by no work, perturbed by no agitations, and yet is no more stagnant than the calm depths of the ocean, being penetrated for ever by warmth and majestic motion in which there is rest. “The God of peace” wills to give to men something not altogether unlike the tranquillity which He Himself possesses. The hope seems altogether beyond the conditions of creatural life, which is tossed to and fro amidst change and agitations. How can the finite whose very law of life is change, whose nature is open to the disturbances of external solicitations, and the agitations of inward emotions--how can he ever, in this respect, approximate to the repose of God?And yet, analogous, if not similar, tranquillity may fill our hearts. When our wills are made pliable and flexible, no longer stiff and obstinate, like a bar of iron, to

His touch, but bendable like a piece of dressed leather; when our hankering desires no longer go after forbidden dainties, but keep themselves within the limits of the Divine will; when we are ready for all that He commands or appoints, meeting the one with unmurmuring resignation, and the other with unquestioning obedience--then nothing that is at enmity with joy can utterly abolish or destroy the peace that we have in God.

II. THE RAISING OF THE SHEPHERD IS THE PROPHECY FOR THE SHEEP. I ask myself, Is it possible that I shall be delivered from this burden of corruption; that I shall ever, in any state, be able, with unhesitating and total surrender of myself, to make the will of God the very life of my spirit and the bread on which I live? And all the unbelieving and cowardly suggestions of my own heart as to the folly of trying after an unreachable perfection, and the wisdom of acquiescence in the partial condition to which I have already attained, are swept out of view by this one thing--the sight of a man throned by the side of God, perfect in holiness and serene in untroubled beauty. That is a prophecy for us all. We look out upon the world, or into this cage of evils in our own hearts, and are tempted to fold our hands and acquiesce in the inevitable. Alas! it is too true that “ we see not yet all things put under man.” Courage! Nothing less than the likeness of Jesus Christ corresponds to God’s will concerning us. In Him there is power to make each of us as pure, as sinless, as the Lord Himself in whom we trust.

III. THE EVERLASTING COVENANT IS THE TEACHER AND THE PLEDGE OF OUR LARGEST DESIRES. Is it not a grand thought, and a profoundly true one, that God, like some great monarch who deigns to grant a constitution to his people, has condescended to lay down conditions by which He will be bound, and on which we may reckon? Out of the illimitable possibilities of action, limited only by His own nature, and all incapable of being foretold by us, He has marked a track on which he will go. If I may so say, across the great ocean of possible action He has buoyed out His course, and we may prick it down upon our charts, and be quite sure that we shall find Him there. Be sure of this, that within the four corners of God’s articulate and unmistakable assurance lies all that heart can wish or spirit receive from Him. You cannot expect or ask more from Him than He has bound Himself to impart. You desires can never be outstretched as to go beyond the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ; and through the ages of time or eternity the everlasting Covenant remains, to which it shall be our wisdom and

our blessedness to widen our hopes, expand our desires, conform our wishes, and adapt our work. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)Peace from God through Christ

I. THE AUTHOR OF PEACE. From all eternity God purposed in Himself the counsel of peace; and when by reason of sin, discord and misery came into the world, the Lord always comforted His people by the promise of redemption. In the fulness of time came Jesus, the Peace-maker; and when the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, the Father made peace through the blood of His Cross. Jesus Himself is our peace; but it is the God of peace who gave Jesus, and who by His atonement made peace, and reconciled all things to Himself. Peace means not merely calmness and rest of conscience and heart, based on the righteousness of God, but it means also restoration to health and well-being; or rather, since in Christ God makes all things new, not a restoration to Adam’s state of innocence, but the creating us anew after His image.

II. JESUS THE CHANNEL OF PEACE. Our Lord Jesus was the Paschal Lamb on Calvary. From that moment our peace was purchased, and we were identified with the substitute. Now the Lamb that was slain is also the good Shepherd, that laid down His life for the sheep; He is not merely the good, true, genuine Shepherd; He is also the great Shepherd, the mighty, sublime, the only one, who leads the flock out of the grave to the heavenly glory.

III. GOD WORKS IN US. Have we thus risen to the thought of the God of peace, the Redeemer, the Restorer, who through the sufferings of Jesus, and by His blood, delivered us from all evil, and has raised us together with Christ, unto a new, spiritual, and endless life, then we can understand the benediction, that God should work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We are humbled by the sense of our transgressions, and above all of the sinfulness of our old nature. Let us be exalted by the grace of God. True, we groan in this tabernacle, being burdened, but we rejoice in God. The Lord works in us. He gives good desires, true petitions, living words and works. He prepares us for the work in time, as He prepared the work for us in eternity. He works in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, for what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And all is wrought through Jesus Christ. For He is our life and strength. Only abiding in Him can the branches live and bear fruit. The Spirit in us is not a substitute for Christ, but the connecting-link between the Lord and us. Thus the Divine energy within us acts simply through our faith in Jesus. Lean then on Jesus, and you will conquer sin. (A. Saphir.)

Our Lord JesusThe names of the Saviour:

To most of us, I suppose, the various names by which our Saviour is designated in Scripture are just like so many aliases, indiscriminately used, and all conveying the same impression. But, in truth, they each suggest some distinctive aspect of His nature or relations to us, and in Scripture are never used without at least a sidelong glance to their special significance. The writer’s thought is always tinted, as it were, even if it is not deeply coloured, by the name which he selects. I have chosen the words which I have read as our starting-point, because they very strikingly bring together the extreme names; that which expresses lowly manhood and that which expresses sovereign authority, “Jesus our Lord,” in the union whereof lie the mystery of His being, and the foundation of our hopes, and by which union He becomes “that great Shepherd of the sheep.”

I. So, then, in the pursuit of this design, I have to ask you to notice, first, THE SIMPLE, HUMAN NAME JESUS.

1. Let us ever keep distinctly before us that suffering and dying manhood as the only ground for acceptable sacrifice and of full access and approach to God. Then, further, let us ever keep before our minds clear and plain that true manhood of Jesus as being the type and pattern of the devout life,

3. Then, again, let us set clearly before us that exalted manhood as the pattern and pledge of the glory of the race.

II. Then we have THE NAME OF OFFICE--JESUS IS CHRIST. IS your Jesus merely the man who by the meek gentleness of His nature, the winning attractiveness of His persuasive speech, draws and conquers, and stands manifested as the perfect example of the highest form of manhood, or is He the Christ, in whom the hopes of a thousand generations are realised; and the promises of God fulfilled, and the smoking altars and the sacrificing priests of that ancient system, and of heathenism everywhere, find their answer, their meaning, their satisfaction, their abrogation? Is Jesus to you the Christ of God?

III. We have THE NAME OF DIVINITY--JESUS THE CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD. NOW that designation, either in its briefer form, “the Son,” or in its fuller form, “the Son of God,” is, we may say, a characteristic of this letter. The keynote is struck in the very first words. And then the writer goes on in a glorious flow of profound truth and lofty eloquence to set forth the majesty of this Son’s nature, and the wonderfulness of His relations to the whole world. Jesus is this Son. Once, and once only, in the letter does the writer buckle together these two ideas

which might seem to be antithetic, and at the utmost possible poles of opposition from each other: the lowly manhood and the wondrous Divinity. But they are united in Him who, by the union of them both, becomes the High Priest of our profession--Jesus, the Son of God. Further, the name is employed in its contracted form to enhance the mystery and the mercy of His sharp sufferings and of His lowly endurance. “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.” The fuller form is employed to enhance the depth of the guilt and the dreadfulness of the consequences of apostasy, as in the solemn words about “crucifying the Son of God afresh,” and in the awful appeal to our own judgments to estimate of how sore punishment they are “ worthy who trample under foot the Son of God.” In like manner once or twice our letter speaks of Jesus as “Lord,” declaring thereby His Sovereignty, and setting forth our relation of dependence and submission. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)Christ brought from the dead:

Which words carry with them the form and purpose of a devout prayer. And prayer is the usual conclusion of St. Paul’s Epistles. This prayer of Paul is a mutual prayer. In the two former verses he craves their prayers for himself, “Brethren, pray for us” (Hebrews 13:18). He desires the assistance of their prayers. And see how he requites that fruit of their love. What he requires of them he performs for them; he prays for them again. Such strong combinations of mutual prayers are prevailing means to bring down blessings. The prayer he makes is most seasonable and pertinent. This prayer is a full and sweet comprehension of his former doctrine, and a great confirmation of the piety and holiness of it. It is a good character of truth when we can pray that which we preach. The text, then, you see, is St. Paul’s charitable and devout prayer, his apostolical and fatherly benediction, and blessing of the Hebrews.

I. The first thing observable is THE PERSON AND AUTHOR FROM WHOM HE SEEKS AND CRAVES THIS BLESSING OF GRACE AND HOLINESS FOR THEM. It is from the God of peace. Why doth he insist in that attribute of God, above all others, when he prays to Him for grace for his people? Many other excellencies God hath ascribed to him in Scripture, and the interposing of them in our prayers would seem very useful for the obtaining this great blessing of grace and sanctity.

1. The Scripture terms Him the God of power; and the blessing He sues for is a work of great power, to sanctify, and fit such sinful creatures as we are, to every good work (2   Peter 1:3 ).

2. The Scripture terms Him the God of grace; and this work is a gracious work. This prayer is a petition for grace, and so St. Peter frames it accordingly (1   Peter 5:10 ).

3. The Scripture terms Him the God of glory; and this work we are about, the work of sanctification, is a glorious work. St. Peter calls it the spirit of 1   Peter 4:14 ). Yet we see the apostle passes by these attributes, and insists upon this, the God of peace, as most proper to what he aims at. In general

2. This title of the God of peace hath a more close reference to the text, to the purpose of it, and to all the parts of it.

II. follows the MOTIVE THAT HE USES, AND BY WHICH HE STRENGTHENS AND ENFORCES HIS PRAYER. And that is the consideration of our Saviour’s resurrection. And it is the Divine art and holy rhetoric of prayer, not only to present our suits, but to press them by the interposition of such prevailing arguments. The motive, I say, which he uses is our Saviour’s resurrection. And of it take a double view. See the description of it; and that consists of three particulars.

1. Here is the Person raised. And He made known1. His first mission and coming into the world was for His sheep Matthew

15:24). 2. His death and passion was not in His own behalf, but for His sheep John

10:15). 3. His resurrection, that was for His sheep to resume that office, to take care

over His flock (Acts 3:26). All for us men, and for our salvation. For better understanding of this title let us take it asunder into these three particulars. First, We see the Church, the body of Christians, they are called sheep. And this resemblance is exceeding frequent in Scripture. The Church of God is called a flock of sheep (Luke 12:32; 1   Peter 5:5 ; Ezekiel 36:38).

It is fitly so termed in these resemblances. 1. Sheep are such kind of creatures as naturally gather themselves together,

unite into a flock. Such are Christians; such is the Church, combined in a holy society and communion. If we belong not to the flock we belong not to the Shepherd, we make ourselves a prey to the wolf.

2. Sheep are of a very harmless and inoffensive nature. And such must Christians be, endued with dove-like simplicity, with lamb-like innocency. The most cruel dispositions shall be tamed and sweetened when they

come once to be of this flock of Christ. 3, Sheep are creatures exceedingly subject to stray, if not tended and kept in the better; unable to keep out of error; and, having erred, unable to return. Such are Christians, the best of them, if left to themselves. How soon out of the right way are we if God takes off His guidance and leaves us unto ourselves? Into what mazes and thickets of errors do we run ourselves (Psalms 119:176).

4. Sheep are weak and shiftless creatures, unable to make resistance. And such is the Church, if considered in itself, and from under Christ’s protection. The enemies of God’s Church are like the fat bulls of Bashan, whereas God’s people are like a few helpless sheep.

5. Sheep are not, as many other creatures, wild and of no man’s owning, creatures at large, but they are the property and possession of an owner. So God’s Church is not a loose, scattered people; they are His proper possession, His chosen people, the sheep of His pasture, His peculiar people, the people of His purchase, His choice inheritance. Secondly, Here is His office. Christ is a Shepherd. He vouchsafes to be called and known by that name (Psalms 80:1). Our Saviour assumes this name to Himself John 10:11).

All that is requisite in a Shepherd is fully in Christ. 1. A Shepherd is an employment of much diligence and attention. It requires a

constant, continual inspection over the flock. Such is the watchful care that Christ hath over His Church (Matthew 28:20).

2. A shepherd is an employment of tenderness, and mildness, and of much compassion. If the sheep stray he seeks them carefully, brings them home gently, lays them on his shoulders. And such a Shepherd is Christ, not like a lion over His flock, but meek and merciful (Isaiah 40:11).

3. A shepherd’s is an employment of skill; he must be able to know the state of his flock (Proverbs 27:23). What diseases they are subject to, and how to prevent or cure them: what food is wholesome for them, and how to supply them. Sure, in this also, Christ is a perfect Shepherd. He hath not the instruments of a foolish shepherd, as Zechariah speaks Zechariah 11:15), but is completely furnished with all abilities for the good of His flock. He knows their diseases, and can cure them; their dangers, and can prevent them; their necessities, and can supply them; their enemies, and can disappoint them (Psalms 23:1).

4. A shepherd’s is an employment that requires stoutness and courage. He that will keep his flock from mischief must not fear the wolf or flee from him, but withstand and resist him.

5. As shepherd’s is an employment of much patience and hardship. He must bear many a storm, and blast, heat, and cold, undergo all weathers. He must endure much tediousness in seeking and reducing his poor stray sheep. It was Jacob’s lot, and much more our Saviour’s. He served a hard service; storms and tempests fell upon Him in tending His flock. He was a man of afflictions, patiently undergoing all the toil of His laborious employment. Thirdly, Take notice of the dignity and eminency of this office. He is called “that great Shepherd.” Great Shepherd! Surely in the world’s account there is scarce good congruity between these two words. If a Shepherd, then we conclude Him to be a mean man. Kings and priests joined together in the Scripture. Nay, peasants and priests, that is the world’s heraldry; so they rank them, set them wish the dogs of the flock, as Job speaks (Job 30:1), that place is good enough for them. Shepherd, Priest, Minister, all words of contempt, not to be found amongst the titles of honour; nay, what saith Moses (Genesis 46:34)? Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. So is a Church shepherd to profane worldlings. Well, let the ministry be the scorn of the world; let them stumble at it in their folly, or spurn at it in their pride, yet it is the wisdom of God and the power of God. A shepherd’s is the office of our Saviour and the glory of Christ. So then, with or without their leaves, Christ is the great Shepherd. Every way great.

1. Great in His person. If the Son of God become a Shepherd, surely then a great Shepherd. How wonderful is it to see the Lord Jesus Christ, with His shepherd’s crook, tending His flock! This humiliation of His Person in a great exaltation of the office makes Him a great Shepherd.

2. Christ is the great Shepherd, because He is the supreme Shepherd, the Prince of Shepherds. All other pastors, of what title soever, are inferior to Him. All hold their employment in dependence from Him.

3. He is a great Shepherd, for His flock is great; great, I mean, in the value. His flock is a flock of souls, and that is a precious flock.

4. He is great in prerogatives. All the flock of Christians is under His inspection. He is the only true OEcumenical pastor. All other shepherds

are but petty shepherds, of a portion only of His flock. But to be the universal Shepherd of the whole Church is Christ’s prerogative.

5. He is great in possession. The flock is His own, He is the rightful Owner and Possessor of it. We, the best of us, are but servants to Him, to tend His flock. He sets us on work, to Him we owe our accounts. He will pay us our wages, or reckon with them that shall any ways defraud us.

6. He is great in His abilities to tend His flock. 1. A great Shepherd in knowing His flock. He hath a special knowledge of

every poor sheep. He hath all their names engraven on His breast (John 10:3).

2. Great He is in His love and affection to His flock. He lays down His life for them.

3. He is of great power to save and preserve them (Isaiah 63:1). (Bp. Brownrigg.)

That great ShepherdThe great Shepherd of the sheep

I. WHY GOD’S RELIEVING PEOPLE ARE COMPARED TO SHEEP. 1. Sheep are harmless creatures (Philippians 2:15). 2. Meek and patient (1   Peter 3:4 ). 3. Clean (Psalms 73:1). 4. Simple and guileless (Psalms 32:2). 5. Tractable (John 10:27). 6. God made them His sheep by free grace (Psalm c. 3).

II. JESUS CHRIST IS THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF HIS SHEEP. 1. He carefully feeds His flock (Isaiah 40:11). 2. He feeds them in providing ordinances for them (Psalms 23:2). 3. In providing shepherds to dispense ordinances (Ephesians 4:11-12). 4. He spiritually blesses the feeding of His flock (Ezekiel 34:14). 5. Christ knows all His sheep (Jeremiah 33:13). 6. He knows them as given to Him by His Father (John 17:6).7. He knows them as bearing His image (Romans 8:29). 8. He knows them by the sprinkling of His blood (Revelation 7:14). 9. He preserves them from danger (John 10:28).

He preserves themIII. WHY CHRIST IS CALLED THE “GREAT SHEPHERD.”

1. In regard to the dignity of His character (Zechariah 13:7).

2. In regard to His great ability to save (John 3:34-35).3. In regard to His property in the sheep (John 10:11; compared 1   Peter 1:18-

19). 4. Other shepherds are sheep as well as shepherds (Acts 14:15). 5. In regard to His dominion over the shepherds (Ecclesiastes 12:11). 6. In regard to the success that He can give to His pastoral care 1   Corinthians

3:7). 7. In regard to the jurisdiction He has over them (1Co

6:20). 8. In regard to the extent of His jurisdiction (Psalms 72:8).

Improvement. To ministers: 1. To teach ministers to act for Christ. 2. To feed their hearers with gospel truths. 3. To show believers their daily mercies. 4. To remind them of their security in Christ. 5. And their final salvation and glory.

Instruction. To believers: 1. Be ruled and governed by Jesus Christ. 2. Submit to the shepherds that He has appointed. 3. Pray to love the goodly pastures of Christ’s providing. 4. Bring forth fruits unto the glory of His grace. 5. And expect to live with Him hereafter, where all sorrow and sin will he for

ever done away, and the whole Church will rejoice in God eternally. (T. B. Baker.)

The blood of the everlasting covenantThe blood of the everlasting covenant:

All God’s dealings with men have had a covenant character. It hath so pleased Him to arrange it, that He will not deal with us except through a covenant, nor can we deal with Him except in the same manner. It is important, then, since the covenant is the only ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, that we should know how to discriminate between covenant and covenant; and should not be in any darkness or error with regard to what is the covenant of grace, and what is not.

I. First of all, then, I have to speak of THE COVENANT mentioned in the text; and I observe that we can readily discover at first sight what the covenant is not. We see at once that this is not the covenant of works, for the simple reason that

this is an everlasting covenant. Again, I may remark that the covenant here meant is not the covenant of gratitude which is made between the loving child of God and his Saviour. Such a covenant is very right and proper. But that covenant is not the one in the text, for the simple reason that the covenant in our text is an everlasting one. Now ours was only written out some few years ago. It would have been despised by us in the earlier parts of our life, and cannot at the very utmost be so old as ourselves. Having thus readily shown what this covenant is not, I may observe what this covenant is.

1. Now, in this covenant of grace, we must first of all observe the high contracting parties between whom it was made. The covenant of grace was made before the foundation of the world between God the Father, and God the Son; or to put it in a yet more Scriptural light, it was made mutually between the three Divine persons of the adorable Trinity. This covenant was not made directly between God and man.

2. And now, what were the stipulations of this covenant? They were somewhat in this wise. God had foreseen that man after creation would break the covenant of works; that however gentle the tenure upon which Adam had possession of Paradise, yet that tenure would be too severe for him, and he would be sure to kick against it, and ruin himself. God had also foreseen that His elect ones, whom He had chosen out of the rest of mankind, would fall by the sin of Adam, since they, as well as the rest of mankind, were represented in Adam. The covenant therefore had for its end the restoration of the chosen people.

3. And now having seen who were the high contracting parties, and what were the terms of the covenant made between them, let us see what were the objects of this covenant. Was this covenant made for every man of the race of Adam? Assuredly not; we discover the secret by the visible. As many as shall believe, as many as shall persevere unto the end, so many and no more are interested in the covenant of Divine grace.

4. Furthermore, we have to consider what were the motives of this covenant. Why was the covenant made at all? There was no compulsion or constraint on God. As yet there was no creature. Even could the creature have an influence on the Creator, there was none existing in the period when the covenant was made. We can look nowhere for God’s motive in the covenant except it be in Himself, for of God it could be said literally in that day, “I am, and there is none beside Me.” Why then did He make the

covenant? I answer, absolute sovereignty dictated it. But why were certain men the objects of it and why not others? I answer, sovereign grace guided the pen.

II. But now, in the second place, we come to notice ITS EVERLASTING CHARACTER. It is called an everlasting covenant.

1. And here you observe at once its antiquity. The covenant of grace is the oldest of all things.

2. Then, again, it is an everlasting covenant from its sureness. Nothing is everlasting which is not secure.

3. Furthermore, it is not only sure, but it is immutable. If it were not immutable, it could not be everlasting. That which changest passes away. But in the covenant everything is immutable. Whatever God has established must come to pass, and not word, or line, or letter, can be altered.

4. The covenant is everlasting, because it will never run itself out. It will be fulfilled, but it will stand firm.

III. Having thus noticed the everlasting character of the covenant, I conclude by the most precious portion of the doctrine--the relation which the blood bears to it--THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. The blood of Christ stands in a fourfold relationship to the covenant.

1. With regard to Christ, His precious blood shed in Gethsemane, in Gabbatha and Galgotha, is the fulfilment of the covenant.

2. With regard to the blood in another respect, it is to God the Father the bond of the covenant.

3. Then, again, the blood of the covenant has relation to us as the objects of the covenant, and that is its third light; it is not only a fulfilment as regards Christ, and a bond as regards His Father, but it is an evidence as regards ourselves. Are you relying wholly upon the blood?

4. The blood stands in a relationship to all three, and here I may add that the blood is the glory of all. To the Son it is the fulfilment, to the Father the bond, to the sinner the evidence, and to all--to Father, Son, and sinner--it is the common glory and the common boast. In this the Father is well pleased; in this the Son also, with joy, looks down and sees the purchase of His agonies; and in this must the sinner ever find his comfort and his everlasting song, “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness are my glory, my song, for ever and ever.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The blood of the everlasting covenant:

This everlasting covenant is the covenant of grace, or the gospel, made with Christ, as the Head and Representative of all His believing people. It is called “everlasting,” in contradistinction to some transient outward forms of it that had already vanished or were vanishing away. God had made legal, ceremonial, national covenants, which were temporary--which had not the elements of permanency. But this covenant touches, embraces everything: reaches up to God’s highest attributes, and down to man’s deepest needs--over all the breadth of law, and along all the line of existence. Nothing can happen to shake it. Nothing can alter the disposition of Him who makes it. He foresees all changes. He overrules all events. He provides for all circumstances. We read of “everlasting love”; of “the eternal purpose”; of “predestination unto the adoption of children”; of being” chosen before the foundation of the world”; of “the mercy of God unto eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began”; and here we have “the everlasting covenant.” Everlasting! I cannot fix a beginning, any more than an end. I can only think there never was beginning. Oh I it is a wonderful thought that God never began to love the world, that He never began to love you. And He will never cease to love. We go on now to the other term, “the blood of the everlasting covenant.” That is the virtue of the death of Christ. It is that grand act of atonement and self-sacrifice by which He bore the penalty of sin for us, and secured the gospel as God’s method in this world for ever.

I. GOD IS THE “GOD OF PEACE,” WHO MAKES PEACE WHERE IT HAS BEEN” BROKEN, AND GIVES IT WHERE IT IS LOST. The God who makes peace between heaven and earth, between law and conscience, between Himself and sinful men. How does He make it? Through “the blood of the everlasting covenant.” If there is a way between heaven and earth, an open way for hopes and prayers, for departing souls and descending angels; if troubled consciences are pacified and cleansed; if thunders of broken law are hushed into silence, it is because this blood was shed, because Christ died, “the lust for the unjust.”

II. HE BROUGHT AGAIN FROM THE DEAD OUR LORD JESUS. He wrought that mightiest work that has ever been wrought in this world, the resurrection of Christ. How? Again, “through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” The power of the death sprang into resurrection. The corn of wheat fell into the ground and died, and then, with a mighty vegetative force, produced this harvest of resurrection--this splendid flower-fact, which towers and shines above all others.

III. It is through the same act of self-sacrifice is death that He becomes “THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP.” What kind of shepherd is needed by this wandering widespread flock of men, scattered over all the hills of earth and time? Is it one who will come and pipe to them while they pasture? Is it one who will speak to them, and call them all by name? Is it one who will lead them out and drive them home? Nay, the first and foremost requisite in the good Shepherd is, that He shall die for the sheep.

IV. Now, passing over the ridge of the passage, we come down upon the human side of it, AND WE HAVE THIS BLOOD OF THE COVENANT FULL OF EFFICIENCIES ON THIS SIDE ALSO. Here the first term that meets us is the term “perfect”; given us at once this high idea, the idea of perfection as a thing attainable now, by means of the blood and death of the Son of God. And this perfection is not merely a thing ideal and distant, not only a thing to be hoped for beyond earth and time, in heaven and glory. It is a thing to be striven for and realised in measure in daily life and service, as here--“The God of peace make you perfect in every good work.”

V. Finally; in this illustration of the power of the Cross, we have the inworking of the Spirit of God in the heart of the man who is thus seeking perfection, “WORKING IN YOU THAT WHICH IS WELL PLEASING IN HIS SIGHT.” This secures simplicity and spirituality--God working within by the Spirit--then all is right and good. The water is cleansed at the fountain, thoughtis touched as it springs, feeling purified as it begins to flow, affection lifted to its object, will bent to the will of God. Lessons:

1. Let us come to this blood of the covenant, or to the death, or to the Cross of Christ for cleansing. This alone cleanseth us from all sin. Here, on Calvary, is the open fountain.

2. Let us come to this blood for motive. Nothing will stir us so purely, nothing will stir us so much. Here is nobleness without a shadow, unselfishness without reserve, self-sacrifice without regret. Here is the love of God all in motion! The purpose of God in and for man, beginning to shine! Here is the everlasting model and example for new obedience!

3. Let us come to this blood for speech. The blood of sprinkling speaketh; and if we hear the utterances, we shall speak too, and tell out what we hear. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

The blood of the covenant

I. The subject is the covenant of grace, as it is here spoken of, and I shall begin by noticing, first, THE COVENANT NAMES which the apostle uses. He calls the ever-blessed Father “ the God of peace”; and to the Redeemer who has taken the other side of the covenant, he gives the title, “Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” As many of us as have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are in Christ, and He is our Head and Representative, our Shepherd and Sponsor. Jesus has, according to His promise, shed His blood, and now the covenant stands only to be fulfilled on the side of the eternal Father, and under that aspect of the covenant the apostle calls the Father, “the God of peace.” He is not the God of a hollow truce, not the God of a patched-up forgetfulness of unforgiven injuries, but the God of peace in the very deepest sense; He is Himself at peace, for there is a peace of God that passeth all understanding; and, moreover, by reason of His mercy His people are made to enjoy peace of conscience within themselves, for you feel that God is reconciled to you, your hearts rest in Him, your sins which separated you have been removed, and perfect love has cast out the fear which hath torment. While the Lord is at peace with Himself, and you are made to enjoy inward peace through Him, He is also at peace with you, for He loves you with a love unsearchable; He sees nothing in you but that which He delights in, for in the covenant He does not look at you as you are in yourself, but in your Head, Christ Jesus, and to the eye of God there is no sight in the universe so lovely as His own dear Son, and His people in His Son. Henceforth be it ours in every troubled hour to look to the Lord under this cheering name, “the God of peace,” for as such the covenant reveals Him. The apostle had a view of the other great party to the covenant, and he names Him “Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” We must view our Redeemer in the covenant first as Jesus the Saviour who leads us into the Canaan which has been given to us by a covenant of salt, even the rest which remaineth to the people of God; He is also the Lord Jesus, in all the dignity of His nature, exalted far above all principalities and powers, to be obeyed and worshipped by us, and our Lord Jesus--ours because He has given Himself to us, and we have accepted and received Him with holy delight to be the Lord whom we cheerfully serve. Further, our Lord is called “the great Shepherd of the sheep.” In the covenant we are the sheep, the Lord Jesus in the Shepherd. You cannot make a covenant with sheep, they have not the ability to covenant; but you can make a covenant with the Shepherd for them, and so, glory be to God, though we had gone astray like lost sheep, we belonged to Jesus, and He made

a covenant on our behalf, and stood for us before the living God. This is a great subject, and I can only hint at it. Let us rejoice that our Shepherd is great, because He with His great flock will be able to preserve them all from the great dangers into which they are brought, and to perform for them the great transactions with the great God which are demanded of a Shepherd of such a flock as that which Jesus calls His own. While we rest in the covenant of grace we should view our Lord as our Shepherd, and find solace in the fact that sheep have nothing to do with their own feeding, guidance, or protection; they have only to follow their Shepherd unto the pastures which He prepares, and all will be well with them. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters.”

II. Secondly, the apostle mentions THE COVENANT SEAL. “The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” The seal of the covenant is the blood of Jesus. Think how impossible it is that the Lord should ever break that covenant of grace, which He spontaneously made with His own Son, and with us in Him, now that it has been sprinkled with blood from the veins of His own well-beloved Son. Remember, too, that in our case that blood not only confirmed the covenant; but actually fulfilled it; because the covenant stipulation was on this wise: Christ must suffer for our sins and honour the Divine law. It is not only ratified with that bloody signature, but by that blood it is actually carried out on Christ’s part, and it cannot be that the eternal Father should start back from His side of the compact since our side of it has been carried out to the letter by that great Shepherd of the sheep who laid down His life for us. By the shedding of the blood the covenant is turned into a testament. Dwell with pleasure upon that word “ everlasting covenant.” The covenant of works is gone; it was based on human strength, and it dissolved as a dream; in the nature of things it could not be everlasting. Man could not keep the condition of it, and it fell to the ground. But the covenant of grace depended only upon the power and love and faithfulness of Christ, who has kept His part of the covenant, and therefore the covenant now rests only upon God, the faithful and true, whose word cannot fail.

III. We have now to notice THE COVENANT FULFILMENT, for the Lord has commenced to fulfil it. “The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that good Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” See, then, Jesus Christ has been brought back again from

the dead through the blood of the covenant. See how He climbs aloft, and sits upon the Father’s throne, for God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Now note by what means our Lord returned from the dead to all this glory. It was because He had presented the blood of the everlasting covenant. When the Father saw that Jesus had kept all His part of the covenant even to death, that He began to fulfil His portion of the contract by bringing back His Son from the grave to life, from shame to honour, from humiliation to glory, from death to immortality. See where He now sits expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. Now, what has been done to Jesus has been virtually done to all His people, because, you observe, the Lord “brought again from the dead,” not the Lord Jesus as a private person only, but “our Lord Jesus,” as “that great Shepherd of the sheep.” The sheep are with the Shepherd.

IV. Fourthly, we will view THE COVENANT BLESSING. What is one of the greatest of all the covenant blessings? The writer of this Epistle here pleads for it. “Now,” saith he, “the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight.” Notice that one of the chief blessings of the covenant is power and will to serve God.

1. Taking the text word by word, I perceive that the first blessing asked for by the apostle is meetness for the Divine service, for the Greek word is not “Make you perfect,” but “meet,” “fit,” “prepared,” “able for.”

2. But the apostle asked for an inward work of grace, not merely meetness for service, but an operation felt--“Working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight.” Do not be satisfied with a little, weak, almost inperceptible, pulse of religion, of which you can hardly judge whether it is there or not; but ask to feel the Divine energies working within you, the eternal omnipotence of God, struggling and striving mightily in your spirit until sin shall be conquered, and grace shall gloriously triumph. This is a covenant blessing. Seek ye for it.

3. But we need outward as well as inward work. Working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight--no small matter when you remember that nothing but perfect holiness can please God. We must know the power of our Lord’s resurrection, and exhibit it in every action of our lives.

4. Observe, once more, the completeness of this covenant blessing. Just as Jesus is fully restored to the place from which He came, and has lost no dignity nor power by having shed His blood; but rather is exalted higher than ever, so God’s design is to make us pure and holy as Adam was at the first, and to add to our characters a force of love which never would have been there if we had not sinned and been forgiven, an energy of intense devotion, an enthusiasm of perfect self-sacrifice, which we never could have learned if it had not been for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. God means to make us the princes of the blood royal of the universe, or, if you will, the body guards of the Lord of Hosts.

IV. We conclude with THE COVENANT DOXOLOGY, “TO whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” If anything in the world can make a man praise his God it is the covenant, and the knowledge that He is in it.

1. Our God deserves exclusive glory. Covenant theology glorifies God alone. 2. He also has endless glory. “To whom be glory for ever and ever.” Have you

glorified God a little, because of His covenant mercy? Go on glorifying Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Make you perfectApostolic prayer for the Hebrews

I. He prays that the God of peace would MAKE THEM PERFECT IN EVERY GOOD WORK TO DO HIS WILL. The word here translated “perfect “ occurs in various other texts, and properly signifies to adjust, to dispose or prepare with great wisdom and propriety. The apostle obviously means that God would fit and dispose the minds of His brethren for every good work to do His will. “The doing of the will of God,” whether this relate to active obedience, or to suffering, forms the grand end of the gospel, considered in its practical design on the heart and life.

II. He also prays, in connection with this, that God would would WORK IN THEM THAT WHICH IS WELL-PLEASING IN HIS SIGHT, THROUGH JESUS

CHRIST. That which is well-pleasing in the sight of the all-perfect Jehovah, must be supremely excellent in itself, and adapted to promote the true, the eternal happiness of His people. It consists of the various dispositions and desires and practices which are comprehended in His “good and perfect and acceptable will.” A very great and unspeakably important part of the great salvation, consists in being delivered from the dominion of the old man--in being renewed in the spirit of our minds, and having infused into the heart those

gracious dispositions which are the fruit of the Spirit, and the produce of faith in that Saviour of whom He testifies. Lessons:

1. Let us be exhorted to contemplate the blessed character of our God as the God of peace, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and who is the author of that holy tranquillity and sweet serenity of soul which is the happy portion of those who know and love His name. It is this which calms the troubles of the breast, and fills us with that peace which, in the language of our Lord, the world can neither give nor take away.

2. We are reminded of the inseparable connection between our enjoyment of the blessings of the everlasting covenant, and of the God of peace as our God, and our being fitted for every good work to do His will.

3. Let us imitate the example of the apostle Paul, in commending one another to the God of peace.

4. Let us ascribe the glory of all to Him who is the author of our salvation. (Andrew Arthur.)

The closing prayerI. THE BURDEN OF THE PRAYER is that these Hebrew Christians may be

made perfect to do God’s will. There is no higher aim in life than to do the will of God. It was the supreme object for which our Saviour lived. This brought Him from heaven. This determined His every action. And human lives climb up from the lowlands to the upland heights just in proportion as they do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. God is love; to do His will is to scatter love in handfuls of blessing on a weary world. God is light; to do His will is to tread a path that shines more and more to the perfect day. God is life; to do His will is to eat of the Tree of Life, and live for ever, and to drink deep draughts of the more abundant life, which Jesus gives. God is the God of hope; to do His will is to be full of all joy and peace, and to abound in hope.

II. MARK THE GUARANTEES THAT THIS PRAYER SHALL BE REALISED. 1. The appeal is made to “ the God of peace.” He, whose nature is never

swept by the storms of desire or unrest; whose one aim is to introduce peace into the heart and life; whose Dove to us will not brook disappointment in achieving our highest blessed-ness--He must undertake this office; He will do it most tenderly and delicately; nor will He rest until the obstruction to the inflow of His nature is removed, and there is perfect harmony between the promptings His will and our immediate and joyous response.

2. “He brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” To have given us a Shepherd was much; but to have given us so great a Shepherd is marvellous. He is the great Shepherd who died, just as He is the good Shepherd who knows His flock, and the chief Shepherd who is coming again, He is great, because of the intrinsic dignity of His nature, because of His personal qualifications to save and bless us, because of the greatness of His unknown sufferings, and because of the height of glory to which the Father hath exalted Him. And, surely, if our God has given us such a Shepherd, and raised Him to such a glory, that He may help us the more efficiently, there is every reason why we should confidently count on His aid.

III. THE DIVINE METHOD will be to work in us. 1. It is necessary first that we should be adjusted so that there may be no

waste or diversion of the Divine energy. 2. When that is done, then it will begin to pass into and through us in mighty

tides of power. “God working in you.” It is a marvellous expression I We know how steam works mightily within the cylinder, forcing up and down the ponderous piston. We know how sap works mightly within the branches, forcing itself out in bud, and leaf, and blossom. We read of a time when men and women were so possessed of devils that they spoke and acted as the inward promptings led them. These are approximations to the conception of the text, which towers infinitely beyond. On His doing all that may be needed in us, as He has done all that was needed for us.

3. He will certainly respect the everlasting covenant, which has been sealed with blood.

IV. THE RESULT will be that we shall be well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)The great prayer based on great pleas:

This prayer is the parting highest wish of the writer for his friends. Do our desires for ourselves, and for those whom we would seek to bless, run in the same mould?

I. CONSIDER THE PRAYER WHICH THE NAME EXCITES. “Make you perfect in every good work.” Now, I need only observe here, in regard to the language of the petition, that the word translated “make perfect” is not the ordinary one employed for that idea; but a somewhat remarkable one, with a very rich and pregnant variety of significance. The general idea of the word, is to make sound,

or fit, or complete, by restoring, by mending, by filling up what is lacking, and by adapting all together in harmonious co-operation. And so this is what Christians ought to look for, and to desire as being the will of God concerning them. The writer goes on to still further deepen the idea when he says, “make you perfect in every good work”; where the word “work” is a supplement, and unnecessarily limits the idea of the text. For that applies much rather to character than to work, and the “make you perfect in every good” refers rather to an inward process than to any outward manifestation. And this character, thus harmonised, corrected, restored, filled up where it is lacking, and that in regard of all manner of good--“whatsoever things are fair, and lovely, and of good report”--that character is “well-pleasing to God.” So you see the width of the hopes--ay! of the confidence--that you and I ought to cherish. We should expect that all the discord of our nature shall be changed into a harmonious co-operation of all its parts towards one great end. It is possible that our hearts may be united to fear His name; and that one unbroken temper of whole-spirited submission may be ours. Again, we shall expect, and desire, and strive towards the correction of all that is wrong, the mending of the nets, the restoring of the havoc wrought in legitimate occupations and by any other cause. Again, we may strive with hope and confidence towards the supply of all that is lacking. “In every good”--and all-round completeness of excellence ought to be the hope, and the aim, as well as the prayer of every Christian.

II. NOTE THE DIVINE WORK WHICH FULFILS THE PRAYER. “Working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ.” Creation, Providence, and all God’s works in the world are also through Jesus Christ. But the work which is spoken of here is yet greater and more wonderful than the general operations of the creating and preserving God, which also are produced and ministered through that eternal Word by whom the heavens were of old, and by whom the heavens are still sustained and administered. There is, says my text, an actual Divine operation in the inmost spirit of every believing man. Expect that operation! You Christian men and women, do you believe that God will work in your hearts? Some of you do not live as if you did. Do you want Him to come and clear out that stable of filth that you carry about with you? Do you wish Him to come and sift and search, and bring the candle of the Lord into the dusty corners? Do you want to get rid of what is not pleasing in His sight? Expect it! desire it! pray for it! And when you have got it, see that you profit by it! God does not work by magic. The Spirit of God which cleanses men’s hearts cleanses them

on condition, first, of their faith; second, of their submission; and third, of their use of His gift.

III. NOTICE THE VISIBLE MANIFESTATION OF THIS INWARD WORK. NOW the writer of our text employs the same word in the two clauses, in order to bring out the idea of a correspondence between the human and the Divine Worker. “To work His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight.” God works in order that you and I may work. Our action is to follow His. Practical obedience is the issue, and it is the test, of our having the Divine operation in our hearts. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)Importance of service:

The soul into which privilege is over running without any outflow of service will become a stagnant and acrid Dead Sea in which no spiritual thing lives. (J. Alison, D. D.)Perfect in every good work through the Holy Spirit

As we ascend from stage to stage in the animal world we find the structures becoming ever more complex, consisting of innumerable parts, articulated or adjusted to each other. That word “articulated” comes from the same root as the word here translated perfect. It means every organ, faculty, feeling in the fulness of its appropriate energy, discharging its proper work; every power disciplined to the height of its capacity and in ceaseless performance of its functions, in due relation and harmony with all the other powers, thus working with them to a common end, so that we are fit not merely for one kind of service, nor two kinds, nor ten, but for every good work. The juice of earth and the carbonic acid of the air passing into the tree, minister to every part of its structure, carrying on all the operations involved in its common life. The stream Of chyle or digested food, drawn up into the blood, serves a thousand distinct ends, restores the energy of nerve and muscle, renews every tissue in the frame, freshens every power of nature, keeps the whole machine at work. And so the Divine Spirit, passing into the consecrated soul, worlds there not merely to the development of one kind of energy. He aims to breathe the mind of Christ through and through the man, so that Christ being present more and more in the man, may recover to His service, dominate, impregnate, and use every power of the nature, intellect, imagination, emotion, memory, will, with all specific talents, aptitudes, qualities. (John Smith.)Conscientious discharge of duty:

“I notice,” said the stream to the mill, “that you grind beans as well and as cheerfully as fine wheat.” “Certainly,” clacked the mill; “what am I for but to grind?

And so long as I work, What does it signify to me what the work is? My business is to serve my master, and I am not a whit more useful when I turn out fine flour than when I make the coarsest meal. My honour is not in doing fine work, but in performing any that comes as well as I can.” (Baxendale’s Anecdotes.)God the originator of good work:

In a mill where the machinery is all driven by water, the working of the whole machinery depends upon the supply el water. Cut off that supply, and the machinery becomes useless; let on the water, and life and activity is given to all. The whole dependence is placed upon the outward supply of water; still, it is obvious that we do not throw away the machinery through which the power of the water is brought to bear upon the work. Just so it is with the Christian’s labour for God. All is naught without the Divine blessing. The living stream must be poured out from on high, or the machinery, however beautiful to the eye, and however carefully constructed, will be useless. For the will to work; for the power to work; for success to work, man is altogether and always dependent upon the Spirit of God. (Christian Armour.)Only a chisel

I’m only a chisel Which cuts the wood, while the Great Carpenter directs it. (General Gordon.)God working in His people:

Human nature is sordid and mean and base; and human nature is grand and heroic and sublime. And the history of the mean men of the world shows how bad you and I can be, without trying very hard either. And the history of the great, and the heroic, and the Divine men shows what you and I might become if we would let God have His way with us. Put a violin in the hands of a poor player, and you will put your fingers in your ears to keep out the dissonance. Put the same instrument in the hands of a skilful player, and you will feel the soul breathing through the instrument. It is the player that makes the difference. Look all along the line of human history, and you may see what kind of figures God can make out of clay like yours; you may hear what kind of music He can play on instruments such as you are. The great and good men of the world are witnesses to the power, not ourselves and yet that is in ourselves, to the power that makes men great. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)Man Divinely equipped

Just as a machine which has got out of order must be set right before it can work easily and well; just as a ship must be equipped and fitted up before it can

safely commence its voyage; so it was necessary that these Jewish Christians should have their whole nature re-organised before their Christian life could be vigorous or happy. The prayer is, that the re-organisation should be such as would make them ready for “every good work”--for the courageous confession of Christ, for the patient endurance of suffering, for worship, for all moral excellence, for brotherly love, for submission to their church rulers, for whatever duty the law of Christ, and the perilous times in which they lived, might impose on them. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)Workers needed:

“You sit here and sing yourselves away to everlasting bliss,” said a certain true witness, “but I tell you that you are wanted a great deal more out in Illinois than you are in heaven.” (Proctor’s Gems of Thought.)

Grace be with you allGrace:

This is the most comprehensive, the best, the sweetest wish. Grace bringeth salvation. Grace contains all things pertaining to life and godliness. By grace we have been saved; by grace we stand; in grace we rejoice, and grace will end in glory. May the free, unmerited, boundless, all-suf-ficient love of the Father in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of the everlasting covenant, shed for the redemption of guilty and helpless sinners, be with us through the power of the Holy Ghost. By Jesus, and in Jesus,we say Amen. For He is the Amen, in whom all the promises of God are sealed. (A. Saphir.)Amen

I had been talking to a little ignorant, neglected boy about the good God and His love for children. “I should like to live along o’ Him!” said the poor little man with a wistful sigh. It was all such a new revelation in his hurried, loveless existence. “Shall I pray to God to make you a good boy, clean and good, fit to live with Him?” I asked. “Yes, do, missus.” “But you must pray too,” I urged. “I dunno’ how.” “Then you must listen to me and say ‘ Amen’ at the end of my prayer. That will mean ‘Yes, I want all that,’ and God will understand you. The child nodded, and I began a very simple, short prayer for the Holy Spirit’s help to make my little friend pure and true and obedient, for Jesus Christ’s sake,--I paused for the “Amen.” A soft, hushed “Yes” fluttered up to heaven from the young lips. “I couldn’t remember the other word,” the child whispered, “but won’t God know about it?” And he went away quite satisfied. He had made the prayer his own in his own way. If all Amens could have the force of that gentle “Yes,” I thought, as I

watched the last flutter of the poor little man’s rags, surely prayer would meet with a fuller and quicker answer. But we are too apt to think that the prayer is everything, the Amen nothing, and so we listeners do not do our part; we remain mere listeners, no prayers.